Another Imagining
by Mickey Seraphin
Summary: Fairy Tail reimagined from when Lucy walked into the guild hall, in a world where Lisanna was never believed to have died. We'll walk different paths to the same destinations, as all the arcs are chronicled again - this time, with a broader focus on our grand cast. Follow Lucy's adventures with Natsu, Lisanna, Happy, Cana, Gray, Erza, Mira, Elfman, Loke, and more.
1. Macao Arc - Part 1

_Mickey here, at it again. This is my latest attempt at a serious project - what Fairy Tail would've been like if Lisanna had never "died". I'm going to rewrite Fairy Tail, starting from Lucy's arrival to the guild. I want to explore what could've been if things had gone differently that night, the different relationships than would bloom, and new doors opening for other guild members to step into the spotlight. Thanks to the power of fanfiction, I'm able to attempt that story as I imagine it._

_I know it's probably not the most original idea out there, and inevitably, since I'm going to go down every major arc featured in the manga (I'm afraid I won't be doing the anime-exclusives, if I'd even get to them), there will be some major similarities to canon. However, I'll do my best to inject my own creativity into the story we know, to give you my take of my Fairy Tail world._

_I felt inspired to write this because I love Fairy Tail, and I love Lisanna. She's my favorite character in the series, and I'm disappointed in her use and reaction when she had such a lovey backstory with Natsu. Since I consider her gold, I want to let her shine as such. However, __even though the primary pairing in this fic is Natsu/Lisanna, don't worry, she's not the main character here. Our lead is still Lucy (who is right behind Lisanna for my favorite in Fairy Tail), because I love how the story is told through her eyes. She'll be the focal point, and the only character that we'll see in every arc retelling._

_That means that our cast will be rotating. Team Natsu as you know it won't exist here, so you'll be seeing other partnerships form to take on the challenges laid out. This series has such a diverse collection of characters, and I intend to go deeper and get more out of them than we've seen in real life._

_With all that said, I want to mention that I have no idea how long I can keep this up. I've had mixed results with long-term projects; some went on for quite a bit, but others flared out pretty quickly. I do have a lot of confidence in this story, to keep it going for multiple arcs, so I hope you guys enjoy this ride with me while we've got something in the tank._

_Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail._

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<br>- Right Where We Left Off -**

"We made it back alive!" Natsu roared as he kicked open the doors of the guild.

"Aye!" Happy chimed in, hovering at his shoulders.

Lucy cautiously followed him in, her hopes of a positive first impression with her guildmates-to-be in worse shape than the door hinges. The feeling didn't last, though, as she noticed that everyone in the building offered her companions a warm greeting instead of dirty looks or berating. Her excitement began to swell up again as she took in the magnificent building.

She was finally at Fairy Tail!

"I'm glad you're still in one piece, Natsu" a calmly confident voice responded, and a young man wearing nothing but boxers, a silver cross necklace, and a dangerous smirk stood up from a table on the right side of the room. "That gives me more to work with to reassemble your face!"

"Oh yeah? Well bring it on!" Natsu grinned, putting up his fists as the other boy charged at him.

"What are you doing?!" Lucy exclaimed in shock as she watched the two begin to exchange blows.

"Don't worry, they're always doing stuff like this," Happy waved them off casually, as if the warring wizards were just saying hello. "That's Gray. He's an Ice-Make Wizard, so naturally, he's Natsu's rival."

"And perpetually half-naked, as I'm sure you've noticed," a beautiful young woman with chocolate-brown hair at the bar said, her arm protectively around a giant barrel of alcohol. "Gray, your clothes!"

"Not right now, Cana!" came Gray's reply. The momentary distraction cost him, as the fire mage delivered a punch strong enough to knock him onto another table occupied by their fellow guildmates.

"I haven't seen you around before," she said to the blonde girl that had trailed Natsu and Happy. Her tone was inviting, and she motioned her over with a little shake of her head. "I'm Cana. Are you new to Fairy Tail?"

"I'm Lucy," she introduced herself with a smile. "I'm not a member yet, but I'd love to be. I met Natsu down in Hargeon, and when I told him that I wanted to join Fairy Tail, he said he could get me into the guild. Um, does stuff like this happen here often?"

She had heard that Fairy Tail was a rowdy bunch, but she never thought that setting foot into the guild hall would be enough to trigger a fist fight. Stranger still, none of the other guild members attempted to break Natsu and Gray up; in fact, the ones that were even paying attention looked amused more than anything else. It wasn't the first time, and she doubted it would be the last, that she asked herself what she had gotten herself into.

Cana smiled. "It's usually worse," she said, lifting the barrel over her head to chug its contents, a display just as weird as the rumble behind them. After she lowered it, the alcohol swishing around inside the vast emptiness she just created, she grinned even wider. "And, right on cue."

A large, imposing figure in a dark blue uniform marched up to the melee in the middle of the hall, a deep scowl on his face. A voice of reason, perhaps?

"A real man will take two punches just to get in one! Fight like you mean it!" he exclaimed, throwing his balled fists up in the air.

"Why is he encouraging them?!" Lucy asked, bewildered yet again.

"That's Elfman for yA," Happy said. Natsu and Gray apparently weren't too fond of his sideline commentary, so for a brief instant, they formed a dynamic duo to knock him across the building. "Well, that _was_ Elfman."

As soon as he was out of the way, their brawl escalated like a black hole, sucking other wizards into the fray. They gleefully turned on the people they had been sitting next to, or called someone out from across the room. As the punches began to fly, so did objects that should've been lying peacefully on the tables. Lucy dipped and dodged the projectiles, while Cana and Happy seemed to have a force field around them that prevented any mugs, glasses or plates from zipping past anywhere near them.

The blonde girl managed to just evade a twirling glass aimed straight for her head - and heard a thud as it connected with someone else's.

Lucy's gasp was drowned out by the cries of the two women sitting on the sides of a handsome but annoyed-looking wizard. A dark bruise began to form where the glass had struck him on the forehead, his shades hanging askew from the force of the blow.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to step in now - to defend your honor, of course," he claimed in a suave voice, rearranging his glasses. He winked at the pair as he took off his jacket, handing it out to them as he stood and smoothed out his designer clothes.

"Thank you, Loke! Good luck!" the girls cooed as he jumped into the nearest scuffle, hugging his jacket in admiration.

As chairs were flung around and bodies crashed through tables, Lucy noticed that only one section of the room had gone untouched by the chaos surrounding it. Two white-haired girls only smiled at the scene before them, the older one with an edgy smirk, the younger one wearing a placid expression.

"It's Mirajane!" Lucy practically swooned, immediately recognizing Fairy Tail's most popular mage. "I can't believe I'm in the same room as this year's Sorcerer Weekly's Sexiest Wizard!"

Cana chuckled. "Yeah, maybe out of all the dopey girls who agree to pose for those idiots," she said proudly, pausing for a second to take a sip from a wine glass she'd procured while Lucy wasn't looking. "Some of us have self-respect, you know."

"I thought those magazine guys said an issue with you would never sell because you're always wearing bikini tops anyway," Happy said.

The flying cat was swatted away so fast, Lucy thought he might've teleported into the crater on the far wall when her eyes caught up to him again.

"That girl next to her, she must be her sister," she continued, turning back to the white-haired pair. "I've read about her in Mira's interviews, but she's never appeared in the magazine herself. She's really pretty, too. Hey, they're supposed to have a brother, too, right?"

"Yeah," Cana replied, looking over at Elfman, the burly man lying upside-down against the wall. "The same guy that you saw get knocked out by Gray and Natsu."

"Oh." And so ended Lucy's fantasy of joining the famous Strauss family.

She watched the sisters exchange words, followed by a sigh from the younger girl. She stood up from the table, and weaved gracefully through the skirmishes to where the aforementioned boys were locked in a test of strength, trying to push each other back as they stood forehead to forehead.

"Hey guys," she spoke as peacemaker, "maybe that's enough. We don't want the Master to have to break this up, do we?"

"No way, Lisanna!" Natsu cried. "Not even Gramps is gonna stop me from giving this underdressed ice-boy what he deserves!"

"What did you call me, you pathetic pyro?!" Gray shot back.

Natsu wasn't given the opportunity to repeat himself, as a large shadow was cast over the room. The fighting ceased immediately, and Lucy turned around to see the stuff of nightmares. A giant being wrapped in the blackest darkness loomed over the entirety of the guild, its glowing eyes scowling at the mess before him.

"That's enough!" the figure's deep, demonic-sounding voice echoed out. "I won't allow you to trash my guild hall any longer!"

"'His' guild hall?" Lucy whispered. "Is that the Master?" Cana answered her with a silent nod, and for a second she wondered whether her best choice of action was perhaps to turn around and look for another guild, one whose master wasn't also a towering monster.

"What kind of example are you setting for the new recruit here?" he boomed again, turning his gaze on her. Chills ran down her already-frozen spine. "Is this how you want her to think we behave as Fairy Tail wizards?"

"Well, this _is_ how we behave -!" Natsu answered, only to get smacked into the wall, right next to Happy.

Five minutes ago, Lucy might've been shocked at that. It was surprising to her just how fast she had gotten acclimated to the workings of this guild. None of the violence around her seemed to have been out of real ill intent; she could tell it was all in good, sporting fun. And the vibrancy of the mages, it was contagious.

The Master then began to shrink rapidly, the blackness dissipating into color as he sunk nearer and nearer to the ground. Lucy really was surprised this time, to find that in his true form, he was an elderly, mustachioed man just taller than her knees.

"It's always great to have new faces around these parts!" he spoke to her with the enthusiasm of a loving grandfather. "I'll take care of your initiation in just a moment, but first, I'm not done reaming through these kids of mine!"

With unprecedented agility, he jumped and backflipped multiple times, until he crashed into the second floor's wooden railing. Lucy worried about his well-being for a moment, but it appeared he was nothing more than just shaken up. With a groan, he pulled himself up to sit on the border, and materialized a large stack of papers in his hand.

"Fairy Tail has been always been home to lively wizards, but never has the list of complaints from the Magic Council been so long!" he began. "It's been over two years now that I've been getting these monthly reports about all the damage you leave in your wake, and quite frankly, I've had enough of it!"

Suddenly, the papers erupted into flames equal to him in size. He tossed the burning pile towards a recovering Natsu, knowing he would consume it to help with snapping him from his daze.

"We are Fairy Tail! Our guild stands for the magical adventure that is life! We are all here, looking for the best way to be our best selves! We will always be willing to help those in need, to help each other, because that is the real nature of our strength! As wizards of this guild, you are obligated to remember that! By striving to live for others, you will walk your path, you will soar your skies, and you will feel truly alive!

"Sure, there might be times when things get a little ugly. You might leave a crack in a wall, or blow the roof off a building, but errors are just a part of life! If you were perfect, you wouldn't be able to learn of the magnificent feeling that is rising above your obstacles! So pay no mind to the delicate sensibilities of the Magic Council! We are Fairy Tail, and we will always adventure with our friends and with our magic! That's what makes us the number one guild in the land!"

A mighty roar shook throughout the hall as the master concluded his speech. Every wizard was on their feet, the grand majority raising their index fingers and thumbs, mimicking their leader's gesture. Lucy found herself not among those pointing, but cheering with as much vigor as any of the long-time members.

**- 0 -**

"So, why did you decide to join our guild?" the Master, Makarov, asked. He sat cross-legged atop the bar counter, hand on his chin as he surveyed Lucy from head to toe with an unreadable expression. With his great magic, he had restored the hall to its proper glory, allowing its members to pick up where they left off before Natsu and Gray had instigated the brawl.

"I've read about Fairy Tail for a long time, and I've always had this feeling that this is where I'm supposed to be," she answered, checking herself from sounding overly giddy. "Now that I'm here, and after hearing your speech, I know for sure that this is the place for me."

Makarov studied her for another moment, emitting a low hum from his throat. With no idea on what he could've been thinking, she was a little surprised when his face went from zero to sixty in giving her a beaming smile. "Well then, welcome to Fairy Tail!"

Lucy rejoiced with a fist pump, but then her rational side came out. "Wait, that's it? It's that easy? You're not gonna ask me anything else?"

"Nope," the Master answered simply. "I believe you've got the right stuff to make this guild proud to have you as one of its own. Besides, you can never have too many cute girls around!"

"Ah, thanks," she said, choosing to accept the compliment without the awkwardness.

"Now, where would you like to have your guild mark stamped, and in what color?"

After her initiation was completed with a pink guild mark placed on the back of her right hand, Lucy felt compelled to show it off to the nearest familiar face. She found Natsu sitting at a table a few feet away, Happy making himself comfortable on his head. Rushing over, she held up her hand with a big smile. "Check it out, guys! I'm an official Fairy Tail wizard now!"

"Right on. Welcome to the guild, Luigi," he replied, about as interested in the news as when he'd been when offered "Salamander's" autograph.

"It's Lucy!" she cried in correction.

"Welcome to the guild, Lucy," the white-haired girl next to him said. She was infinitely more warm and genuine than the Dragon Slayer, who received a slight nudge for his hollow greeting. "We're happy to have you here."

In her excitement, Lucy had failed to register the three others at the table with Natsu and Happy. Only after hearing one of them speak up did she realize it was the Strauss siblings. Her jaw almost fell at being only a yard away from one of the most recognizable wizards in all the land, but she was able to reign it in. Mirajane, like her sister, gave her a smile, but it didn't have nearly as much of Lisanna's kind sentiment. Elfman simply retained the same frown as when she'd first seen him.

"It's nice to meet you, Lucy," Mira said, her voice containing hints of teasing that the blonde was sure drove men wild. Her brother grunted in agreement, nodding towards her. "So, what kind of magic do you use?"

"I'm a Celestial Wizard," she said, reaching for the key ring attached to her hip. She removed it from her belt with a jingle, and held it up to display her collection.

"Wow," Lisanna said, leaning forward in her seat. "I don't know much about Celestial Spirits, but I've heard that there are only twelve Golden Keys. And you've got three of them? That's really impressive! You must be really strong!"

"I'm pretty much a novice, really," she said modestly, her face growing slightly red. "I'm sure I'm nowhere near as strong as you guys. I just inherited my Gold Keys from my mom."

"Inherited?" Mira asked, her head tilted to the side somewhat. "Does that mean your mom is...?"

Lucy averted her eyes, but nodded in confirmation.

When she looked up again, she noticed Mira's face had become considerably softer. She almost seemed like a different woman entirely. "I guess you're in the right place, after all," she said gently, leaving an air of mystery in her words that she'd have to inquire about at a later time.

"How can you be such a jerk?!" a distressed voice was heard across the way. The group turned over to the bar, where a young boy of five or six was confronting Makarov, his hands balled into tiny fists, tears brimming around his eyes. "My dad said he'd only be gone for maybe a few days, but's it's been a whole week now! And you're not even gonna try to help him?! What kind of Guild Master are you?!"

"Look, Romeo," Makarov said with an annoyed growl in his throat, "your father is a very capable wizard, so have some faith in him. Do you think Macao would've taken the Mt. Hakobe job if he didn't understand the risks involved? If he believed it was within his abilities to handle it alone, I'll trust in his decision. Now go home and wait. He's probably on his way back as we speak."

"That's the same thing you told me two days ago!" Romeo cried, trembling with anger. Unsatisfied with the lack of progress, he swung at Makarov with a yell, striking him right in the nose. Immediately after, he turned around and ran out of the building, wailing about how he hated the old man.

"That poor boy," Lucy said, touched by his emotion. "The Master should've helped him out."

"He's only doing what Macao would've wanted," Mira explained, most of the sympathy in her face from before vanished. "He wanted to leave alone, and he'll want to make it back alone."

"Macao's a real man," Elfman agreed. "His pride wouldn't let him have it any other way."

The silverware and glasses shook as Natsu pounded the table suddenly, a dark look in his eyes. "That idiot," he snarled intensely as Happy floated off his head. He grabbed his pack that rested at his feet, and rose from his spot on the bench. "His pride isn't more important than his son. If I have to drag him back here kicking and screaming I will, but I'm gonna make sure he's still alive to understand that."

Mira watched him begin to walk away with an amused look, with Happy flying at his shoulder, while Elfman shook his head, brows furrowed. While he clearly disapproved with Natsu's decision, he didn't think to stand in his way. Lisanna, though, stood up after him.

"I'm going with you," she said, her voice unwavering.

Natsu and Happy turned around. His face relaxed into a smile, growing wider with every step she took to close the gap between them.

Before they could advance outside the hall, Happy suddenly focused in on the new blonde. "Hey Lucy," he asked, reminding her that she wasn't just an audience member, "wanna come with us, too?"

"Uh..." she could only manage for a second, being caught off-guard. At first she was excited over the invitation, but then her pragmatism won out. "Really? You know, I probably wouldn't be much help."

"I think you _should_ go with them," Mira suggested, propping her arm on the table to rest her head. "What better way to start at the guild than by diving in head-first, right?"

"No way!" Elfman protested his big sister's idea. "Don't you remember what the Mt. Hakobe job was? Macao was supposed to take out a pack of Vulcans. It's too dangerous to send a newbie to clean up whatever mess he's made of things!"

His words might've been harsher than they needed to be, but ultimately, Lucy knew he was right. She didn't know what a Vulcan was, but if a group of them was able to fend off a reputable wizard like Macao apparently was, she'd more than likely be a liability against them.

"Natsu," Mira called to him while keeping her smirk on Elfman, "you better make sure nothing happens to the girls, got it?"

"Got it," he replied, then turned his beckoning smile over to the blonde. "You ready to go, Lucy?"

On the way out of Magnolia, the team of four found Romeo sitting on the steps of his house, fighting back tears. Hearing their footsteps, he saw them approaching him, and ran up to them. His look of disbelief became one of hope as Natsu ruffled the boy's dark hair, giving him a smile that promised to return his father safe and sound.

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><p><em>And here's the first chapter. The first couple of arcs will be split into two halves, with first part typically setting up the scene, and the second featuring the battles and resolution. As we move forward, chapters will get longer, and will need to be separated into thirds, possibly even fourths, if need be.<em>

_The Macao arc, which will conclude next chapter, doesn't deviate too much from canon. The biggest difference is Lisanna joining Lucy, Natsu, and Happy as they make their way up to Mt. Hakobe. After that, you'll start to see things heading in different directions._

__This was really fun to write, and I hope you guys had fun reading it, too. After all, that's the idea, right? As always, reviews are very much welcome and appreciated. If personal experience is anything to go by, feedback is my driving force, so if you want more of this, I'm easily reached with just a click. Thanks!__


	2. Macao Arc - Part 2

_Mickey here, bringing you the second chapter, the conclusion of the Macao arc. As I mentioned before, it won't be too different to what we saw in canon. Nevertheless, I hope you do enjoy the changes I was able to make. Enjoy!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<br>****- A Fire On A Hill -**

"Man, his motion sickness really takes it out of him, huh?" Lucy observed. The four wizards had rented the use of a wagon to speed up their arrival at Mt. Hakobe, and as soon as the vehicle had set out on the bumpy path, Natsu slumped in his seat, on the verge of consciousness.

Lisanna giggled. "He'll be good as new as soon as the wagon stops," she said. She grabbed him from leaning against the side of their carriage, and laid him down across the bench, resting his head on her lap. "Just go to sleep, Natsu. We'll wake you when we get there," she whispered soothingly.

With an incoherent groan, he shut his half-lidded eyes, and faded into a pleasant dream, a land without vehicles.

"Are Natsu and Macao good friends?" Lucy half-whispered after she made sure he was truly asleep. "He was pretty upset when no one offered to help him or his son."

"He's friends with Macao just like everyone else in the guild - yeah, even Gray," Lisanna replied, her countenance taking on a sad smile. "We're all one big family at Fairy Tail. The thing is, though, our real families... For most of the younger generation, our parents aren't around anymore. Cana and Gray, and Natsu, my siblings and I, we were all partially raised at the guild by some of the senior members like Macao.

"He was always one of the more fatherly figures to us, and given that he also uses a type of Fire Magic, he and Natsu always got along really well. He has great respect for him, so I know he's not completely thrilled about having to check up on him. He's doing it more for Romeo than anyone else, because Natsu knows what it's like to have your father with you one day, only for him to disappear and never be heard from again."

"I see," Lucy said. Considering their pasts as Lisanna had explained, she now understood what Mira had meant earlier when she'd said she was in the right place at Fairy Tail. "So Natsu's dad left and never came back, too?"

"Well, it wasn't his real dad - Natsu was raised by a dragon," Lisanna said casually, making the statement sound all the more strange to her ears.

"A dragon?!" she shouted, then clamped her hands over her mouth. She was afraid that she might've woken the boy and incited his sickness again, but he did nothing but the slightest bit of stirring. "You mean Igneel?" she asked, softly this time.

Lisanna nodded. "When Natsu was a little boy, barely of walking age, he was found by Igneel alone in the forest. He taught Natsu some basic things, like language and culture, but it was also from him that he learned his rare and powerful Dragon Slayer Magic. They lived together happily for a few years, until the day that Igneel vanished without a trace. No letter to explain why, no tracks or scent to follow, nothing. Natsu was heartbroken, understandably, but he knows that Igneel wouldn't just abandon him without a good reason. It's his life's goal to one day meet with Igneel again, and make him proud of how strong he's become."

Lucy noticed the way Lisanna smiled down at him, her cheeks matching the hue of the pink spikes she gently fiddled with as she recounted the boy's tragic history. They also noticed but ignored Happy, shaking and containing his chuckling. After a moment of debating whether to ask or not, she let her curiosity get the better of her. "Are you and Natsu..." she trailed off, hoping that she didn't need to continue.

Lisanna looked at her briefly, before turning away with a shy smile, the color of her blush deepening. "No," she answered softly. A quick glance at Happy made it clear to Lucy that she wasn't willing to say any more on the matter while the cat was present.

"So, you and your family all use the same kind of magic, right?" she asked, changing topics as the wagon began to decrease its speed. It also began to rock a little harder, as if the wind had picked up. "Mira mentioned it in one of her interviews."

"It's not exactly the same," Lisanna replied, the meekness gone in her tone. "We each specialize in different forms of Take Over Magic. Because I love animals, there wasn't a better style for me than Animal Soul."

As Lucy inquired more about her new friend's powers, growing more impressed with the descriptions, the ride continued to become more and more turbulent. She knew they were traversing uphill - the mission site was a mountain, after all - but what were the road conditions like if she had to hold on to the edge of her seat to keep from bouncing off?

Just as she was about to bring her concerns up, the wagon came to a complete stop, and the driver called out from the front. "Sorry ladies, but this is as far as I'm able to take you. You're gonna have to make it the rest of the way on foot. I'll be waiting here for your return trip."

"Thank you," Lisanna said, gently shaking the boy on her lap. "Wake up, Natsu. We're here."

Natsu, who had been dozing through the tremors, sprang up at her touch with boundless energy. Fire escaped from his lips as he celebrated the motionless foundation. "Alright! Now let's go find Macao!"

He kicked open the wagon's back doors, but before Lucy could ask why he seemed to favor that particular treatment of entryways, she gasped at the sight before her. The sky was gray and the ground piled white with snow, a raucous gust of wind directing the cold flakes' dancing as they sprinkled about. "A blizzard? It's the middle of summer!"

"It's always snowing on Mt. Hakobe," Happy answered matter-of-factly. "You probably should've worn something a little warmer, Lucy."

"First of all, I didn't know that! And second, I'm not the only one here who failed to dress up for a winter wonderland, so don't give me that tone, cat!"

"If you don't wanna keep going, feel free to stay here," Natsu said with thinly-veiled annoyance as he jumped out of the wagon, his gaze set forward. Lisanna, shivering in her red and pink dress, stepped into the snow after him, her soft smile telling Lucy that it was okay to stay in the warmth of their ride.

Tempting as the offer was, and still unsure of what the rationale was behind her even coming along with the more experienced mages, she followed them out. How could she ever go back to the guild with the shame of cowering out on her first expedition as a Fairy Tail wizard? She'd never be able to look at any of the others in the eyes again.

Natsu and Happy trekked on as if a blizzard wasn't blowing around them. Of course, Natsu probably had some everburning fire inside that bottomless pit in his stomach that kept him warm, while Happy had his plushy coat of fur. The girls didn't fare as well, as their sleeveless, skirted attire was a better combination for the sunny temperatures of Magnolia. Solidarity with Lisanna was the only reason why Lucy didn't attempt to snatch the blanket from Natsu's pack, mocking her as she watched it bob with his footsteps.

"Hey Natsu," the white-haired girl suddenly spoke up, as if she'd been reading her mind, "lend Lucy your blanket. It's not doing anyone any good just sitting there on your shoulders."

Without a word, he shrugged the strap of his backpack off, allowing him to retrieve the blanket and hold it out to Lucy. She greedily received it, but then turned to the other girl with a bashful look. "What about you? You could use it just as much as me."

"I'll be fine," Lisanna smiled with a wink before shouting, "Take Over!" She began to glow, then shrunk down to Happy size, her frame changing as well. When the light around her faded, it revealed her complete transformation into a baby penguin. "Now I don't feel a thing," she said through her beak.

As she resisted the urge to glomp her tuxedoed bird form, a brilliant thought struck Lucy. "Open, Gate of the Clock Constellation! Horologium!" She raised a Silver Key, and a large object fell from the sky, crashing over her. When the snow it kicked up was rubbed out of their eyes, they were able to see just what it was.

"Whoa! A clock?" Natsu asked. A tall grandfather clock with arms, legs and a face had been summoned by Lucy's key. The Celestial Wizard rested inside the clock, her huddled figure visible through the front glass casing of his body.

"That is totally cool," Happy said in awed envy.

"'Warm and cozy, actually,' she says with relief," the clock spoke. They had seen the blanketed girl's lips move, but nothing was audible beyond Horologium's insides. The spirit took it upon himself to convey her words. "'So where exactly do you plan on looking for Macao all the way out here?' she questions."

"Vulcans live in caves, so when we spot one, we'll check it out," Lisanna said as they continued their way up the mountain. Outpaced by Natsu and Happy in her penguin form, she waddled along beside Horologium. It turned out he wasn't very swift of foot, so the girls were falling behind by a fair amount.

"Macao!" Natsu yelled out to the peaks. "Where are you?!"

"'Do you really think he'll be able to hear you in this storm?' she asks dubiously," Horologium said as Lucy's proxy.

"'We won't know if I don't try,' I retort."

"'It must be fun to talk like that,' Happy wonders out loud," the cat said, getting in on the act.

A faint shadow appeared on the ground before Lucy and Lisanna, growing darker by the second. "Look out!" she said, hopping away as a towering figure landed in front of them.

With ape-like mannerisms and a wicked grin, the Vulcan sneered at the wizards, who were momentarily stunned by its sudden entry. It didn't take long for him to choose a target, setting his sights on the blonde inside the clock. Dashing through the snow, he grabbed ahold of Horologium, and lifted the clock over his head victoriously.

"'Help me!' she wails," Horologium expressed on Lucy's behalf as they were tucked under the Vulcan's arm. The monster then began to scale up the side of the mountain effortlessly, heading towards an opening in the wall.

"Lucy!" Lisanna cried, reverting back into her human self. "We have to save her!"

Ignoring the cold, she took off, leading the three up the spiraling pathway. It didn't take them long to come across a network of caves, but they weren't sure which was the one the Vulcan had disappeared into with their teammate. Picking one at random, they stuck their heads in to avoid the howling wind, and caught sound of an eager, beastly chant of "Woman! Woman! Woman!"

"Wait, don't leave me, Horologium!" Lucy's voice met their ears again, despairing on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry, but my time is up," the clock replied, every word fainter than the last. Whether the pun was intended or not, it was hard to be sure.

Running deeper into the cave, it lead them to a wide area with stalagmites and stalactites protruding through the ice-layered floor and ceiling. In the middle of the area, visibly the clearest section, the Vulcan was leaning in close to the newest member of their guild, fingers twitching in anticipation.

"Hey!" Natsu yelled at the monster. "Get away from - whoa!"

The fire mage grew careless as he charged in, slipping on the slick floor. He slid for a few feet, his momentum halted by colliding with a stalagmite. Happy and Lisanna sighed at the boy, while Lucy took advantage of the distraction he was at least able to provide, scrambling to get away from the confused Vulcan.

"Alright!" Natsu said with a wince as he jumped to his feet. "Now where's Macao?"

"Eh?" the Vulcan asked, scratching the top of his head. He then noticed that his hostage was no longer next to him, but regrouping with another attractive girl across the clearing. A devious grin came over his face.

"You know, the guy who came looking for you," Natsu continued, oblivious to his enemy's change in expression. "Tall, scruffy-looking man. What'd you do with him?"

"Oh! Man!" the Vulcan said in overacted realization. He leaped over to an opening in the wall, the storm continuing to rage outside, and pointed through it. "Man there!"

"Ah, nice! Thanks!" the Dragon Slayer hurried over, and stuck his head out into the storm. He saw nothing but the other peaks of the mountain range, not even a dark speck amongst the sea of white that could've been his friend. Just as he was about to complain to the Vulcan about the misinformation, he felt a strong push on his back, sending him falling outside.

"Natsu!" the three others cried as his voice faded into the wind, picturing him dropping like a stone.

"Happy!" Lisanna turned to the cat. With a nod, he took off, bursting through the opening in an attempt to save their friend. "Looks like it's up to us to handle things," she said to Lucy as they watched the Vulcan celebrate his trick, dancing and shaking his hips a little too suggestively for their liking.

Her determination reinvigorated Lucy, whose panicked brain suddenly focused. She reached for her key ring, and selected her best spirit for the job. "Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"

Cracks appeared on the surface of the ice-covered floor, and a large black-and-white body powered out from under the ground. With a loud moo and the bell around his neck ringing, Lucy's Celestial Spirit flexed his muscular humanoid frame with a confident grin.

"Taurus is the strongest spirit I have a contract with. He'll be able to go toe-to-toe with that overgrown monkey," Lucy explained, smirking at her move.

"Hey, Miss Lucy. That figure of yours just keeps getting better and better every time I see you," Taurus said, the stare he aimed at his master not unlike the Vulcan's. "What do I have to do to get a _smoooch_ from you?"

"And not to mention, a total perv himself," she then added, exasperated.

"Cow?" the Vulcan growled at his latest guest. "Cow is not woman! Me no like man-cow!"

"Get him, Taurus!" Lucy commanded, pointing at her target.

With a bellowing moo, Taurus removed his giant two-bladed poleaxe from the strap around his back. He twirled it with great speed as he sprang towards the Vulcan, and brought it down with enough force to cause fissures in the icy ground. The monster managed to roll away from the blow, then went on the offensive as he lunged at Taurus with a rabid grin.

"Lucy," Lisanna said to her, worriedly looking around the cave as the battle raged on. "Maybe it'd be best to use another spirit. That axe he has... I don't think we wanna injure the Vulcan too badly."

"How come?" Lucy asked, but didn't receive an answer, as Taurus's turn was about to come to an end.

The two met in the center of the clearing, locked in a standstill to overpower the other as the Vulcan took hold of Taurus's weapon. Their grit was evident on their faces, their strength roughly equal as they struggled to gain the upper hand. They were so consumed by their grapple, they didn't hear the incoming yell of fury until the fiery dart sent them flying in opposite directions.

"So you throw me off the mountain so you can wrestle with that bull monster? You kicked the wrong guy out of the fight!" Natsu said with a devilish smirk, standing where the two had been previously been engaged. "The Vulcan's free, but that bull's gonna cost Macao a part of the reward!"

"That's not an enemy, you idiot! That's one of my spirits!" Lucy clamored as Taurus groaned, down for the count. Natsu's attack had sent him crashing into a stalactite, the ceiling fixture crumbling into pieces from the impact of his bulk. One particularly large chunk had fallen directly onto his horned head, rendering him unable to continue.

"Oh. Sorry."

Lucy scowled at him for the halfhearted apology. "Shouldn't you be about to hurl after flying with Happy?!" she demanded, more than a little ticked at his not being any worse for wear after the state he'd left her spirit in.

Natsu eyed her as if she had lost all common sense. "Why would I be? It's not like Happy's a vehicle; he's my friend!" He then turned to Happy, hovering just above their heads, and flashed him a big smile. "Anyway, thanks for the save, little buddy! I owe you one!"

"Aye!" Happy said with a nod.

As they chatted, the Vulcan had gotten back to his feet, suffering from no more than the single blow Natsu had dealt. Pounding his chest with a roar, he closed the distance between him and the pink-haired wizard with just two long bounds. He narrowly leapt away from getting bowled over, igniting his fists in flames.

"I'll take care of him! You two stay back!" he commanded.

"Hold on, Natsu!" Lisanna warned. "Don't hurt him too seriously! That's Macao!"

"What?!" Natsu and Lucy cried.

"Vulcans have a special Take Over ability!" she explained as Natsu danced around the monkey's swipes. "They gain control and reshape their victim's bodies to their own form! If this is the Vulcan's lair and Macao's nowhere to be found, then that must mean the Vulcan is using his body, so any damage you deal him also affects Macao!"

"So I've gotta hold back, huh?" Natsu muttered through his teeth, as if the thought itself pained him.

"Restraint isn't one of his strong suits," Happy commented, as if he needed to advertise the fact.

"How can we beat that thing if hurting it means hurting Macao?" Lucy asked. She'd never met him, but she didn't want to cause him any more injuries that he'd already been inflicted.

The Vulcan, sensing Natsu's apprehension, drove him back with an onslaught of blows. He dodged every last one, but wasn't able to counterattack as he tried to figure a way to end the fight without excessive force. He also wasn't aware of how the Vulcan had steered him in the direction of Taurus's axe, which he picked up once it was within reach.

With a slasher smile, the Vulcan swung heedlessly at Natsu. It was as if he was a natural with the weapon, as the blade came dangerously close to slicing through the Dragon Slayer on more than one occasion. With a downward swing, he lodged the axe in the ground, giving Natsu the moment he needed to jump back and breathe. He dug it out with a wild glint in his eyes, then flung the axe with an upwards trajectory.

"Not even close!" Natsu mocked, standing his ground as the weapon whirled by over his head.

"Watch out!" Lisanna cried. She began to glow, then disappeared from beside Lucy and Happy in a flash.

When they next saw her, she was on the ground with Natsu, a few feet from where he had been just a second before. The axe had sliced through a stalactite that had been directly over him, and its fall would've impaled him if she hadn't intervened. Instead, it shattered harmlessly as it struck the ground.

"Looks like I owe you one, too," he said with a smile as he realized what happened.

"Don't mention it," Lisanna returned his smile in kind. She turned back to the monster as they climbed to their feet, who gawked at her with an open jaw over her new appearance.

Her pink and red dress was gone, replaced with an orange and black midriff-exposing top, with a matching short skirt. Bracers of similar design adorned her forearms, and black stockings rose above her knees, but her hands and feet had become paws covered in brown fur. Likewise, new pointy ears sprouted from her hair, and a large, bushy tail with a white stripe down the middle gently swayed behind her.

"That's one of Lisanna's Partial Take Overs," Happy explained to Lucy animatedly. "Her Squirrel Soul doesn't give her much of a boost in strength, but it does make her lightning-fast! And her tail is super soft and fluffy!"

"No kidding," Lucy said, still awestruck that she was able to cover the gap between them and Natsu, twenty-five feet or so, in the blink of an eye.

Lisanna took a battle stance with a bittersweet smile. "Looks like we don't have much choice. If we wanna save Macao, then we're gonna have to knock the Vulcan out of him."

Natsu grinned. "Now you're talkin'. Just gimme one good shot."

Lisanna obliged him, snapping the Vulcan out of his lovestruck state by suddenly moving a few feet to his right. Making sure his eyes were at least keeping up, she wagged her tail at him before rushing to his left side. Dumbfounded by her speed, he was unable to react properly as she moved in front of him for the briefest of instants, flashing him a smirk before disappearing like an apparition.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" As soon as she was gone, a blazing fist struck him right between the eyes, the glow of the fire the last light he saw before blacking out.

The four Fairy Tail wizards stood over the Vulcan's unconscious body, waiting, but not entirely sure what for. A collective exhale was let out as the Vulcan was wrapped in bright light, then shrunk down to a normal human size. Lucy gazed upon Macao for the first time as they cheered their victory, but the celebration was cut short as she pointed out his injuries.

Bruises dotted his exposed skin, the most prevalent of which darkened the area in between his eyes. His clothes were dirty and torn, and his breathing was troubled. Natsu dug through his pack's first aid kit, while Lucy, Happy and Lisanna rolled him onto their blanket. With their combined efforts, the four were able to bandage his wounds with timely efficiency. It didn't take very long after for Macao to recover consciousness.

Like a magnet, his half-lidded eyes were drawn to Lucy. "I always hoped there'd be a beautiful blonde angel waiting for me in heaven," he spoke, his throat raspy.

"Uh..."

"Hey Macao!" Natsu yelled with a big grin as he got in his face. "Glad you're alright!"

The middle-aged wizard frowned. "Never mind. Not heaven."

"How are you feeling?" Lisanna asked tenderly.

Macao turned his head towards her, now smiling. "I've been better," he said, "but thanks to you guys, I'll _be_ better, too."

"Good," Natsu intoned sternly. "You've got someone back home that needs you to stick around for awhile."

"Romeo," Macao sighed his son's name. "What's he gonna think when he find out his old man was able to take out nineteen Vulcans, only to get done in by the twentieth?"

"I'd think he'd proud of you," Lucy spoke up. "You were able to defeat nineteen of those beasts? We had trouble with just one. Who wouldn't be impressed by that?"

Macao's face relaxed, appreciative of her kind words. "You must be new to the guild," he noted, spotting their insignia on the kneeling girl's hand. "What's your name?"

"I'm Lucy. It's nice to meet you."

**- 0 -**

On the way back to Magnolia, once they had managed to aid Macao down the mountain and into their waiting ride, they explained what had prompted them to come rescue him. As predicted, the veteran mage felt embarrassed over having needed to be saved, but he didn't shy away from expressing gratitude, humbly thanking the four for their efforts.

"If it hadn't been for you guys, I'd never be able to see my son again," he said, smiling sadly. "Erza warned me about coming up to Mt. Hakobe by myself. I guess this little adventure of mine's taught me that I might be getting too old for the cool jobs, but at least, I'll still be around to watch Romeo grow up."

The sun was setting when they found the boy the same way they'd last seen him, sitting alone on his house steps. The faith that they'd left him with appeared to have kept him from shedding tears, but his dejected expression had returned.

"Romeo!" Natsu called out with a wave, his other arm holding up a limping Macao. "Check out what we found!"

"Dad!" Romeo cried, bouncing off the steps. He charged at the group, and jumped into a vicegrip around his father's midsection. "You're back!"

"Yeah," Macao said, patting his head affectionately. "Sorry about making you worry about me. If those kids ever want to make fun of you again, you tell 'em that you've got a dad that can beat nineteen monsters, and friends who'll deal with the rest."

Romeo lit up, then shared his beaming smile with the others. "Natsu, Happy, Lisanna, Lucy! Thank you for saving my dad!"

Lucy smiled in returned. It warmed her heart to be part of such a joyful reunion, saving the memory into her mind. She couldn't have asked for a more extraordinary first day at the guild. She wouldn't count on the rest of her time being quite as exciting, but with the people she'd met and the ones she could count on as friends, she was already in love with her new home. She knew, without a doubt, there was no better place for her than Fairy Tail.

* * *

><p><em>I really do like the way this came out. I wanna keep to the true Fairy Tail spirit of wackiness, but I also wanna tone down some of the unbeatable-shonen-hero vibes as well, make characters a little more vulnerable than we know them as. This particular chapter was pretty straightforward, as it didn't really deviate much from canon aside from Lisanna's presence. Beginning next chapter, we'll see that change.<em>

_Of course, I'll also be introducing some new abilities for the cast, as exemplified by Lisanna's Partial Squirrel Soul. The design for that was inspired by Makoto Nanaya of Blazblue, except not nearly as fanservicey, and lacking her super strength (I've got another animal in mind for that). If you got the reference - and there'll be a lot more from all kinds of anime, shows, movies, books - major kudos._

_So far I've been enjoying myself greatly in writing this fic, and I hope the same goes for you readers. I always love getting constructive input to help me grow as a writer, so I always appreciate reviews. Thanks for checking the story out so far, and I hope you guys can stay with me for what's to come!_


	3. Daybreak Arc - Part 1

_Back again, bringing you the first part of the Daybreak arc. This'll more than likely be the last time a whole arc is featured in just two parts; from now on, I fully expect at least three chapters, and I'm sure four will be necessary at some point. Until then, read on, and please enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<br>- Author's Insight -**

Lucy walked into the guild hall with a sense of purpose. She wasn't sure what it had in store for her today, but she was resolute in making it count. She had just returned from successfully renting a comfy apartment not too far from her new base of operations, after having spent her first night in Magnolia in a cheap motel. She was elated to have found something so nice at a rather convenient price tag, but at the moment, she felt her biggest victory was in having secured her living conditions so early in the day. It wasn't yet noon, so she had plenty of time to better acquaint herself with some of her guildmates, and maybe even pick her first official job.

As she made her way inside, she spotted a shirtless Gray walk by Loke and his two lady friends. One of them was drawn in by his aloof stride, but Loke whispered something to regain her attention, causing both girls to giggle and snuggle closer to him.

Lucy rolled her eyes at the scene, then caught sight of Cana at the bar. A frothy mug of beer in one hand, the brunette waved her over with the other. She downed her drink just as Lucy took a seat on the stool next to her. "Hey, Cana," she greeted warmly, which was reciprocated. Motioning with her head over to Loke and his company, she asked, "Are those two girls members of the guild?"

"Nope. Just the lucky Loke fangirls of the week," she smirked, catching a refill that slid across the bar without even having seen it coming. "Us Fairy Tail girls have an understanding when it comes to Loke: turn him down no matter what he says or does. As I'm sure you'll learn for yourself, he's persistent. He won't go away without putting up a fight, and believe me, some of us have gladly obliged him."

Lucy nodded along with a grateful smile. While she had no intentions of affiliating with Loke in a romantic sense, she was happy to have learned something about the sisterhood in the guild. "And, what's the deal with Gray?" she asked. As if following a script, the ice mage slipped out of his dark jeans as she presented her question, leaving him in just his boxers as he took a seat at a table.

The Card Wizard laughed at Lucy's wide-eyed reaction. "The skivvies usually stay on, so you can relax - unless you were hoping for more of a show." The new girl shook her head, her faced flushed, getting Cana to grin even wider. "Anyway, he doesn't strip because he's vain or a perv," she began. "It's just an unconscious habit that's ingrained into his core. And before you ask where he could've possibly picked up a habit like that, I'm the only one here who knows that story, and I'm not allowed to share."

"You guys must be pretty close," Lucy concluded. Cana's voice softened a bit when she mentioned knowing Gray's past, the tell-tale indicator.

"Don't get the wrong idea," she replied, playfully stern. "I was a part of Fairy Tail years before the other younger guys joined. Gray was the first kid my age to come along, and we became fast friends." She paused to take a sip of her new drink, savoring it before resuming. "So I heard about what happened with Macao yesterday. I'll admit, I didn't take you for a total badass when I first saw you, but hey, who doesn't love a pleasant surprise?"

Lucy looked at her, confused. Her, a badass? When did that happen? "What exactly did you hear?"

"That you summoned a giant bull monster that was beating the daylights out of the Vulcan. You had him right where you wanted him, but Natsu just had to play hero and steal your thunder."

"And who'd you hear this from?"

"Happy."

"He wasn't even there for that part!" Lucy cried before adjusting her volume. "Yeah, I had one of my Celestial Spirits face off against the Vulcan, but we just held him to a standstill, really. It was nothing to merit being called a badass."

Cana shrugged. "Give yourself some credit. You were a member for what, twenty minutes before you decided to join a rescue party at Mt. Hakobe and take on a Vulcan? Most people give themselves a couple days before looking for their first _paying_ job, but you were up and out _for free_ moments after getting your guild stamp."

Lucy couldn't help but blush at the praise. While she still felt undeserving of that particular reputation, Cana did bring up valid points that she could take pride in. "Thanks," she smiled.

"Hey Lucy!" a squeaky voice called from above her. The two girls looked up, finding Happy as he slowly lowered himself onto the bar counter. "Natsu and Lisanna are over there looking for a job," he said with a grin, gesturing to the request board with his paw. True to his word, the Dragon Slayer and the Take Over Wizard were musing over the postings, meticulously going through the ample selection. "Wanna come with us?"

"Really?" Lucy asked excitedly, but was quick to tone it down. "Is it okay with them?"

"When I asked, Lisanna said she'd love for you to come along, and Natsu's fine with it one way or the other," Happy answered. "So are you in?"

"Sure!" She offered Cana an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry to leave you like this, but I was looking forward to getting a job today. Can we talk more when we get back?"

"Of course," the brunette said, raising her mug at the ready-and-willing blonde with a wink, "so long as you agree that the two of us should find some work together later. What do you say?"

"Definitely," Lucy agreed. Happy lead her over to the request board, where Natsu stood with a passive expression but crossed arms. Lisanna, conversely, wore a smile, holding her hands behind her back. "You guys having trouble picking a mission?" she asked as she came up behind them.

"We talked about some of the ones we could take in case you weren't coming along with us," Lisanna replied, "but we actually wanted to let you decide. It'll be your first official job, so it should be up to you."

"Oh, thanks," Lucy said, lighting up at the kind gesture.

"Just be sure to pick something cool," Natsu said, flashing her a toothy grin. "Like, a retrieval job that pays really well."

Lucy noted the way his head was inclined and his smile hinting, his eyes darting between her and a poster situated near the bottom left of the board. Stepping forward to get a better view, she read the job's brief description. Their client wanted them to procure a book from a corrupt politician named Duke Everlue, who apparently was a dirty old man looking to hire a blonde maid.

The last part stuck out to her, and she understood why Natsu not-so-subtly suggested it. She could already see what his grand plan was: she would distract Everlue in a maid costume while the others searched his mansion for the novel. She wasn't thrilled with the idea of playing decoy and being left alone with another perv, not after yesterday's events, but before she could spite him and select another mission for them, she glanced at the reward.

"This one fit the bill?" she asked with a grin, untacking the piece of paper. 200,000 Jewel was being offered for successful retrieval of the book, and split four ways between the team would net her 50,000. She could earn over two-thirds of her rent with this single job.

"Stealing a book doesn't sound all that exciting, but if that's the one you want..." Natsu said, clasping his hands behind his head in a show of feigned apathy. His triumphant smirk indicated he truly felt otherwise.

"Hi Levy! Hi Droy! Hi Jet!" Lisanna said cheerfully. Lucy turned around, and saw a petite girl with two tall, lanky boys at her side making their way to the request board.

"Hi Lisanna! Hey Natsu and Happy!" the girl said enthusiastically, the boys nodding in greeting. She then looked at the unfamiliar new blonde, nonetheless offering the same sweet smile as her old friends. "Hi there. I don't believe we've met yet. I'm Levy, and this is Jet, and Droy. Together, we're Team Shadow Gear." The boys struck a pose at the mention of their trio's name, cheering in adoration of their leader.

"I'm Lucy. I just joined the guild yesterday. It's really nice to meet you guys," she said, her team's name striking a familiar chord. Levy was a very cute girl, and with her noteworthy slender frame that broke the curvy precedent set by every other Fairy Tail girl she had seen so far and peppy charm, it was no wonder Jet and Droy seemed thrilled to be in a party with her.

"So you're working with Natsu, Lisanna and Happy, huh? I bet that's a lot of fun," Levy said with a knowing smile. "Hey, do you guys know if anyone's already taken that book-stealing job yet? I was hoping it'd still be available by the time we got back from the mission we just finished."

"Uh..." Lucy suddenly felt incredibly awkward, the poster crinkling in her hands.

"That's the one we just decided to go on," Happy said, pointing to the ad Lucy held. He seemed to be oblivious to his upbeat answer's upsetting effect on Levy.

"Aw, man," she pouted. "I was really looking forward to seeing what that book was about! It must be super rare if the client is willing to go to so much trouble just to get it! I would've loved to have a chance at reading it over before turning it in!"

"Do you like to read?" Lucy inquired.

Levy clasped her hands together, her face filled with wondrous joy. "There's nothing I love more than reading!" she proclaimed. Jet and Droy's eyes drooped at her words, but their disappointment went unnoticed. "If you ask me, books are the most special kind of magic. The places they can take you, the words that express a life of their own! What else could the effect of an amazing story be called but spellbinding?"

Lucy, an avid reader herself and an aspiring novelist, related perfectly with Levy's feelings. Her admission also reminded Lucy of where she'd heard the 'Shadow Gear' name before; it was a secret organization that sometimes helped, sometimes deterred, the hero of an adventure series she'd read growing up. She wanted nothing more at that moment to turn the flyer over to the blue-haired girl, but she knew it wasn't her call to make, not without the consent of her group. "Would you guys be okay if we let them have this job?" she asked carefully.

Lisanna nodded with a smile. "It only seems fair, right?"

Levy and her team celebrated the decision. "Cute _and_ considerate!" the boy with the long coat and hat, Jet, said in admiration.

_"_We'll totally find a way to make this up to you!" Droy said with even more reverence.

"This is so sweet of you! Thanks a bunch!" Levy said as she reached out to accept the mission poster Lucy held out.

"Not so fast, Team Shadow Gear!" Natsu declared as he snatched the flyer away before Levy had received it. "You know the deal with these jobs! It's first come, first serve! We got to it while you were just lounging around the hall, so you've got no one to blame but yourselves for missing out!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy nodded in agreement.

"Natsu, how can you be so insensitive?" Lucy growled at him. Even if he didn't want to turn the job over to them, he didn't have to sound so smug about it.

"We should let them have it, guys," Lisanna said, hoping to coerce the boy and his cat with the soothing tone that rarely failed her.

"Sorry, Levy, but it serves Jet right for -" Natsu started heatedly, but paused when he remembered the company he was in, "- that one time."

"You still haven't gotten over that? Jeez, man, let it go already!" Jet cried in exasperation. "It wasn't enough that both you and Elfman made a point to single me out in brawls for a whole month? Look, if you're gonna be mad at me, fine, but don't take it out on Levy, too!"

"His mind's made up," Happy commented as Natsu folded his arms with a vindictive smirk. "There's no getting through to him now."

"You heard the man!" Natsu said gleefully as he and his cat began to march towards the bar. "Lisanna! Lucy! Let's get a move on!"

As he turned the poster over to Master Makarov at the bar counter, necessary to be officially recognized as having accepted the job, the more reasonable girls apologized vehemently to the Shadow Gear trio.

"We're really sorry about this," Lisanna bowed slightly. "You know how he is, though. I was hoping he'd forgotten all about that, but I guess that was just wishful thinking."

Lucy was curious about this incident they referred to between Natsu, Jet and Elfman, and made a mental note to ask Lisanna for details when they were isolated from the hothead and Happy. Right now, though, she just wanted to lift poor Levy's spirits. "You know, Levy, I'm something of a writer myself," she began, embarrassment coloring her face. "I'm working on a novel right now, even though it's no good and I've never really wanted to let anyone else read it. But since you love books so much, I'd be honored if you wanted to take a look at what I have so far."

Instantly, Levy's dejected face brightened once more at the offer. "Absolutely I would!" she clamored. "The honor would be all mine! I'd love to be the first person that gets to read your work!"

"It's a deal, then," Lucy smiled. Levy's love of literature was so clear, it defined her just as readily as her short stature and infectious positivity. She had only ever intended for people very special to her to be able to read her story, but just in the brief time she'd known Levy, she could already tell she'd made the right decision in advance.

**- 0 -**

"Please tell me we're there," Natsu gurgled faintly.

"Almost. Just a little bit longer," Lisanna said, her voice tender as she patted his hair.

Once again, the Dragon Slayer had been rendered out of commission by the voyage. Their destination, Shirotsume Town, was no farther from Magnolia than Mt. Hakobe had been, and they'd decided the train would be the fastest and cheapest way there. This time, however, the boy had to suffer through his motion sickness. He hadn't been able to fall asleep on Lisanna's lap as before, causing Lucy to inwardly grin at his plight. It had to be cosmic justice for the way he'd refused to give up this job to Levy's team.

"If you had a way to fly, we could've been there by now, and Natsu wouldn't have to be feeling sick," Happy pointed out, sitting beside her.

"Are you insinuating this is somehow _my_ fault?" Lucy challenged. "If I remember correctly, _you're_ the one who invited me along with you guys."

Shortly thereafter, the train arrived at the quiet station in the little town of Shirotsume. Lucy and Lisanna stepped out of the transport without any sort of difficulty, but Natsu dizzily stumbled onto the concrete, nearly falling on his face. To him, no other vehicle sucked as much as those damned trains.

Heading for their client's address, the girls lead the way through the main street as Happy walked alongside a trudging Natsu. His back was hunched, his footsteps heavy, and his face blank in discomfort. "You still haven't recovered?" Lucy asked over her shoulder. She'd noted the Dragon Slayer usually sprung back to his normal self almost immediately after whatever he'd been riding had stopped.

"So... hungry..." he managed to reply.

"Seriously?!"

"It feels like I haven't eaten in days," he whined. Suddenly, his back straightened, and his features came alive as he sniffed the air. "There's food over there!" he yelled, pointing to the restaurant directly across from them as if it were the last oasis on the planet.

"Do you mind if we stop to eat before meeting the client?" Lisanna asked Lucy, even though they both knew it was pointless to try to keep Natsu out of that restaurant.

"You guys go on ahead," she said. "I'm not very hungry right now. I'll take a look around town while you guys eat, if that's alright with you."

"Are you sure? If you're trying to lose weight, skipping meals isn't a very healthy way to do it, you know," Happy said as Natsu merrily made a beeline for the entrance.

"What do you mean by that?!"

"If you want, I can go along with you," Lisanna intervened, speaking to the enraged girl. "I'm not all that hungry myself, and I've only ever passed through Shirotsume Town on the way to another city. I'd like to get a bit more familiar with it, too."

"Sounds good," Lucy said with a smile. Time alone with Lisanna meant she could ask questions she wouldn't broach with the other two around.

"Alright then," Natsu called from the restaurant's entrance, his big grin visible from the distance. "Be sure to meet us back here when you're done, 'cause Happy and I don't plan on finishing up until then, got it?"

If anyone other than him had made that suggestion, Lucy would've feared for their safety.

The girls continued down the main street with a casual stroll. When they came to the center of the town, a large water fountain surrounded by benches sat in the middle of the four intersecting ways. They opted to make use of the benches, the cool spray from the fountain helping stave off the summer heat. Lucy read all the shops' signs within her vision range, while Lisanna observed the collection of birds that lined the fountain's border, dipping their beaks in for a drink.

"So I picked out a great apartment this morning," Lucy said excitedly. "It's not all that big, but I really do like it. You should come over and see it some time."

"An apartment?" Lisanna asked, confused. The plump bird that she had been beckoning to sit on her finger retreated, momentarily causing her to pout before turning back to Lucy. "You're not gonna be staying at Fairy Hills?"

"What's that?" The place rung a bell - she'd likely read about it in Sorcerer Weekly at some point - but couldn't remember what it was supposed to be.

"It's the dormitory where most of the girls in the guild live. Mira and I live there, and Cana and Levy."

Lisanna went on to explain more of the intricacies of Fairy Hills, each new detail making Lucy wish for a time travel machine to take her back to that morning. "Man, I wish I'd known about this place before I signed my lease - I'm locked in for the next six months."

"If you explained to your landlord, I'm sure they'd let you out of it early," Lisanna suggested. "The people of Magnolia love Fairy Tail; they're usually very supportive when we ask something of them."

Lucy shook her head with a slight smile. "I'll ride it out. As a Celestial Wizard, my word is my bond. Promises and contracts are very important to me, so I always do my best to follow through on them. Fairy Hills sounds like an amazing place, but for now, my apartment is my home." Suddenly remembering, she reached for the ring of keys on her belt. "Speaking of which, I still haven't worked out a contract with my latest spirit. If you like, I can show you how it's done tomorrow at my place."

"I'd love to be there," Lisanna accepted brightly.

A moment of quiet passed between them, as Lucy again was hesitant to ask her question. Finally, she found the words to ask. "I'm sorry if I sound pushy about this, but... you and Natsu, is there something between you guys?"

Lisanna blushed as she focused on her knees. "Natsu's and I have been best friends ever since we were little. We've been through a lot together, and it's no secret to the guild how close we are. But, we're not anything more than that."

"Do you wish you were?" Lucy was afraid she was being intrusive and overstepping her boundaries, but Lisanna didn't seem to mind.

"I do," she whispered, her voice barely louder than the fountain spray behind them. "I know it's totally silly to think this way, but ever since we hatched Happy from his egg -"

"Happy came from an egg?!" Lucy was bewildered at the revelation, but she quickly apologized and asked her to continue.

"Ever since then, I've always had this idea in my head that Natsu and I are like a family. It's like he's the husband and I'm the wife, and Happy is our son. It's so strange for me to even imagine a future without him in it. The thing is, I'm not sure what kind of future he envisions for himself. I know he cares for me, but I don't know if I'm special to him in the same way that he's special to me."

"I'm sure you are," Lucy said powerfully, as if there were no other alternatives. "I know you've probably heard it before, to the point where you must be tired of listening to it, but he's different when you're around. I may not have known him for very long, but I've noticed how his eyes are brighter, and his smile is gentler when he looks at you. It's a totally different kind of excitement for him than when he fights; it's like he's got something precious that he'd never want to lose. Natsu's simple and brash, which makes his emotions not all that difficult to read, and from what I can tell, you're just as special to him as he is to you. He might not be mature enough to really understand what he feels in his heart right now, but he will someday."

The white-haired girl smiled sadly at the word that contained just as much anxiety as it did hope for her. "Someday."

"And one more thing," she asked, the wheels in her head turning as she stared at the rather large clothing store down to their left. "What was he talking about before? That thing with him and Jet, and your brother?"

"Oh, that," Lisanna said, her blush remaining steady. "Well, both Jet and Droy like Levy."

"Thought so. I'm guessing that's not much of a secret throughout the guild, either."

Lisanna shook her head, smiling. "Anyway, a couple months ago, Jet came up to me and said that we should pretend to start dating, to make Levy and Natsu jealous. I didn't like the idea so I declined, but he went ahead and practically shouted that he'd be picking me up later that night anyway. Big Brother Elf and Natsu weren't at the guild hall at the time, but Mira was, and she was more than happy to let them know about my 'plans' for the evening. Needless to say, it didn't end up working out for 'us' - less so Jet. The boys didn't let him off easy, not even after he told them it was all a joke."

Lucy couldn't help but grin. While she still couldn't agree with the way he'd gone about refusing to give Shadow Gear the mission they were on, she understood Natsu's motivations. She'd come to expect nothing less than a passionate response from him when he was riled up, and his special best friend certainly had to be one of his triggers.

**- 0 -**

"Pass the ribs."

"You already ate them."

"Then pass the fish."

"I already told you, you're not getting any of my fish!"

Natsu and Happy gorged themselves in the outdoor patio behind the restaurant, voraciously reaching across the table laden with a variety of dishes. Happy protectively sat between his plate of fish and Natsu, using his body to ward off the boy's attempts at sampling his meal. Every couple of minutes, he found himself swiping back his hand, until it became an automatic response.

"I wonder what's taking the girls so long," he said, nibbling on a mackerel. Natsu tore into a drumstick, but even if his mouth had been available to complain, he would've opted not to.

"Wonder no more, boys," a sugary-sweet voice was heard approaching.

Looking up from their plates, Natsu' and Happy's eyes widened, and if their mouths hadn't been in the middle of the savoring process, their jaws would've dropped at the sight before them. Lucy and Lisanna were dressed in maid outfits, similar but distinctly differing. Lucy's featured full sleeves that puffed at the shoulders, while Lisanna's loose sleeves weren't connected to the body of her dress; rather, they began just above her elbows, leaving her upper arms exposed.

"What do you think?" Lucy continued to use her best obedient tone, striking a cute pose as she twirled the ends of her double pigtails and winked. "Would you hire us, Master Happy and Master Natsu?"

Instead of answering, Natsu turned to the cat. "Did you mention anything to them about the maid costume?" he whispered.

"Nope. She must've thought of it on her own. Does that make her smarter or dumber than I thought?" Happy asked, equally hushed.

"I'm standing right here, you know!"

"Yeah, that'll work, I guess," Natsu said with a nonchalant shrug. "But Lisanna, what's up with your hair?"

Lisanna smiled, her locks gleaming the same color as Lucy's blonde in the sun. "What do you think?"

"It looks good," he answered tentatively, and Lucy was shocked that his cheeks began to take on a pink hue, "but I like you just the way you are."

Now it was Lisanna's turn to blush. "The job said Duke Everlue was looking for a blonde maid, so I just used a simple transformation spell on my hair. This way, we can pitch ourselves as friends willing to split the pay to work together. Getting two cute maids for the price of one should make us all the more desirable, right?" she explained, invoking the maid voice at the end.

"It should," he admitted, somewhat disheartened. To be honest, even though he and Happy had conspired to get Lucy to wear a maid costume for the task of infiltrating Everlue's mansion, he had been hoping that the ploy would bust, leaving them to try a more fun, direct approach. He didn't want stealing the book to be that easy, but with Lisanna also donning the black and white uniform, he wasn't sure how it could fail now. Everlue would have to be out of his mind to turn the pair and their story down.

"Hurry up and finish eating so we can go meet the client!" Lucy growled, still mad about Happy's comments about her weight and intelligence. Clearing the rest of their dishes as she frowned at them made it a less-than-enjoyable culinary experience, something she took pleasure in.

After paying the restaurant owners a small fortune, Natsu directed them towards the client's house. They left the center of the town for the affluent outskirts it was located in, passing by several mansions before they came to the right address. They rung the bell at the outer gate, and shortly after, a middle-aged man in a suit came out of the house.

"You must be the Fairy Tail wizards who accepted my job," he said as he unlocked the gate. "Please, follow me."

The client lead them into his mansion, the four mesmerized by the grand spacing and wealthy decor. When they came into the living room, he took his place on a loveseat beside a woman with a warm smile, his wife, and offered the extended couch opposite them for the four mages to occupy.

"I am Kaby Melon," he introduced himself kindly. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You're named after food?" Happy asked, his ears perking up. "You must get free melons all the time!"

Kaby chuckled as Happy and Natsu began dreaming about scenarios in which their surnames were their favorite meals. As Lisanna prodded them out of their free food fantasy, Lucy wondered to herself why the man's name sounded so familiar.

"Now then, the job that I've brought you here for is quite simply stated: Shirotsume Town's Mayor, Duke Everlue, owns a book entitled _Daybreak. _All I ask of you is that you find it, and destroy it," Kaby explained.

Natsu grinned, creating a small flame atop his raised index finger. "Consider it as good as ash."

"Can we ask why you need this book destroyed?" Lucy inquired. In case it wasn't proper to ask a client's motivations when they hadn't already been made known, she asked with utmost politeness, especially when she felt it was justifiable to sound disapproving. To her, there were few good reasons to dispose of a novel in the way he was asking them to. "200,000 Jewel is a lot to pay for something so straightforward."

"Actually, I've increased the reward to 2 million Jewel," Kaby deflected in correction.

"2 million?!" they repeated, floored by number. As Natsu and Happy tried to figure out the math of splitting it four ways, Lucy thought up a mental list of lavish ways she could spend her share. Lisanna was the first to break free of the money's allure, returning to her senses after visions of opening a petting zoo.

"How come you've raised the reward by so much?"

Kaby sighed, turning his head in shame. "Because, this mission has proven to be much more treacherous than I originally believed. The first team of wizards that accepted the job... they were killed in their attempt to break into Everlue's residence." He let the information sink in, the euphoria disappearing from their visages instantly. "I assured them it wasn't going to be a difficult job, so they must not have been expecting whatever resistance they were met with. Unfortunately, the two never made it back from the mansion, and even worse still, Everlue was able to cover up their deaths. He has this town's Knights Unit under his influence, paying them off to look the other way whenever he commits a crime."

"That's horrible," Lucy gasped. "He really went that far?"

"I understand if you don't want to proceed with the mission," Kaby said, gripping his hands together. "It would mean the world to me to see _Daybreak_ burn, but I won't have the cost be your lives."

Natsu, Happy, Lisanna, and Lucy all looked at one another. The hardened expressions among them collectively signified they weren't going to stand by and let that man get away without consequences. They were all in.

**- 0 -**

"Just like we rehearsed," Happy instructed as he and Natsu took their places behind a wide tree trunk. "Remember, Lisanna, a little more energy. And Lucy, don't go over-the-top, okay? It's creepy."

Lucy frowned at the cat as she and Lisanna approached Duke Everlue's front gate. Before arriving, they had gone over the details of their plan. Natsu argued against the girls first trying to charm their way inside, saying the man deserved nothing less than them blitzing the gates and taking the whole mansion down, _Daybreak _along with it. He was eventually but begrudgingly persuaded to see their way, once Lucy and Lisanna, confident in their wiles, agreed to his method if theirs somehow failed.

Natsu and Happy flashed them a thumbs-up from their vantage point, the sign that they were in position in case Everlue tried anything funny.

"Excuse me!" Lucy called out cheerfully. "We heard that the honorable Duke Everlue was looking to hire a new maid! We've come to apply for the position!"

A moment passed without a response. The girls, who had used make-up to hide their guild marks from giving them away, turned to each other with confusion. Before they could try to get his attention again, they felt a strange rumbling underneath their feet. They jumped out of the way in time to avoid the large, rotund figure that burst through the ground, and landed with a crash before them.

"You've come looking to join the services of Master Everlue?" the scowling pink-haired woman in a maid's uniform asked of them, her deep voice lacking any sort of distinct feminine cues.

"That's right," Lucy answered, trying to remain steady under the shadow of the giant maid. "My friend and I have been looking for a job together, and when we saw his ad in the paper, we agreed we could share the pay if the Duke was kind enough to hire us both."

The ground began to shake once more, and a second shorter but just as round person sprang from beneath the cobblestone path. "An intriguing proposition you ladies have for me," the man, presumably Everlue, said, twiddling his handlebar mustache with an atrocious grin as he sized the mages up. "Now, let's see here..."

"We hope to fit your needs, Master Everlue," Lisanna said, forcing a smile as she and Lucy fought to keep from wilting under his eyes. The man's stare sent shivers down their spines, and was so disturbing she was positive Natsu and Happy could spot it from behind their tree. If the cat had thought their new guildmate was creepy, his definition was sure to be redefined by the politician.

After rubbing his chin thoughtfully for what seemed like an eternity, at last Everlue turned away from them. They didn't expect he would give them his back in utter dismissal, however. "No, you just won't do at all. Now get off my property."

The girls were visibly shocked at the refusal. Not over the failure of their plan, but over wounded ego.

"A man of my standing can only be seen surrounded with the most beautiful servants in the land," he explained with a condescending grin as a row of four, aesthetically-deficient maids popped up from the ground behind him. "It would be an intolerable shame to be associated with such _ugly_ help."

It felt as if each word was a mountain of bricks falling onto them, as even the Duke's maids hurled insults at the girls. Completely disheartened, they sulked off as the laughs of Everlue and his help faded behind them, but retained their cruel power as they repeated in their heads.

"What happened?" Natsu asked as they regrouped amidst the shrub, away from the mayor's eyes.

"That jerk called us ugly! Can you believe it?" Lucy raged as a despondent Lisanna leaned against a tree. "No one else in the world would think to turn down two beauties like us! He's totally warped!"

"The world's a big place, Lucy," Happy said.

"Shut up!"

Natsu smirked, embers flickering from his grin as he balled his fists. "Well, I guess this means that Plan Take 'Em by Storm is going into effect!"

Lisanna hadn't been as vocal about her pride as a cute girl being damaged, but it was evident that she been hurt by the comments nevertheless. However, the dangerous glee in Natsu's eyes as they were to implement his methods restored her smile. Releasing the spell on her hair that kept it blonde, she wiped away the skin-colored make-up on her guild mark with her other sleeve. "He's left us with no other choice," she said, not sounding opposed in the slightest as before.

"He killed a team of wizards, covered up their deaths, and called us ugly!" Lucy listed as she uncovered her own mark by rubbing her hand across her apron. "What he's done is completely unforgivable! He's goin' down!"

The three others cheered in unison. unaware of the floating surveillance lacrima floating atop the branches above them. On the other end of the lacrima, Everlue watched them as they declared their intentions, his grin almost too big for his face as he stroked his mustache.

"Looks like another group of wizards have decided to pay us a visit," he said, focusing on the visible guild stamps on the human mages. "And they're from Fairy Tail. I've heard they're supposed to be quite a handful. Do you think they'll be a problem for you?"

The pair of tall men behind him smirked in response. "It doesn't matter what guild they're from," the first one, the shorter, slimmer of the two, replied.

"They all vanish just the same," the second, the bigger, bulkier one, followed up.

Everlue let out a wicked cackle, filling the dark room with the screeching sound. Those fairies thought they could pull one over on him, and he was going to greatly enjoy their frightened looks of regret as they realized just how wrong they were to try to cross him.

* * *

><p><em>Like the Macao arc before it, the Daybreak arc won't be a great divergence from what we know it as originally. It'll follow the same general path, but there will be a few more differences this time around, Lisanna being the key one again.<em>

_As you can probably guess by now, I'm a fervent Natsu/Lisanna shipper. The whole idea for my story was based around that concept, but it's not what this is about. Yes, it will be brought up, but it's not what we're here for. This is Lucy's story. I know some of you guys'll be upset that it doesn't have the relationship you look forward to, and I sympathize, but with so much to the Fairy Tail world, I want more than we've been given. So, if you're a fan of Natsu/Lucy and you're continuing with me knowing it's not here, then I do thank you. Being able to bring in the outsiders is a big win._

_All that said, whatever your favorite pairing might be, I wanna thank you guys for the readership. Reviews are always accepted and appreciated, of course, and I hope to see you at the next chapter!_


	4. Daybreak Arc - Part 2

_And now, for the conclusion of the Daybreak arc. Just a little more exposition and plot, and then we turn to the first major fight scenes of Another Imagining! Take it all in, and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<br>****- Groundswell -**

"I don't think you really get the spirit of Plan Take 'Em by Storm," Natsu grumbled as he melted a hole through the attic window. Deciding that the roof of the mansion was their best bet for breaking in, Happy had flown him and Lucy up to the roof, while Lisanna had used her magic to turn into a dove and fly up herself.

"If we wanna bring him to justice, we're gonna need some hard proof to incriminate him," Lucy began. "If we trash the whole place, we won't just take out _Daybreak _along with it, but also any evidence we could use to put him away. This way, we can sneak in, grab the book, and find something to expose his crimes, something that the Knights Unit won't be able to sweep under the rug."

"I know the guy deserves to get locked up for what he's done, but let's not forget why we're here in the first place. Our mission is to find and destroy a book," Natsu reminded her, sounding almost chiding. "If we come across any evidence while we're searching for it, great, but we're not gonna go out of our way to look for some. We signed up for a job, so that's our priority right now."

"We can't just let him get away with killing those wizards!" Lucy protested, turning to Lisanna for back-up.

"That's not what he's saying," she replied. "We all feel the same as you do, but as Fairy Tail wizards, we have an obligation to our client, first and foremost. Once we've found the book, we'll take it back to Mr. Melon so he can burn it himself. After that, we'll come back here and see to it that Everlue gets what he deserves."

"Aye!" Happy piped up. Natsu smiled in accordance with Lisanna's words, and Lucy then understood. She had made a promise to Kaby Melon, and as she'd said, her word was her bond. The job took precedence, but that didn't have to mean that Everlue was off the hook.

They ducked inside through the burned window pane, the attic floor slick with a coat of dust. They split up momentarily to look around the room, just in case the book they needed had been stored up there, but no such luck.

"You guys find anything?" Lucy asked as they regrouped near the door.

Happy jumped out from behind a shelf with what could've been called a roar, wearing a rubber human skull over his head. "Just this cool mask," he said as the startled blonde girl recovered from the scare against the wall.

"Totally cool," Natsu commended with a grin.

After Lisanna reprimanded the cat for potentially tipping off Everlue or his servants with the prank, they sneaked out of the attic, and again dispersed to cover more ground. They carefully checked every door in the wing, but didn't find any sort of reading material whatsoever.

"This place is huge," Happy said as they met up again at the staircase. "I think we need a better plan than just looking into every room."

"I say we force Everlue into talking," Natsu suggested. "Let's take a hostage or something."

"We're not taking any hostages," Lisanna quickly put an end to the idea. She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment, then spoke up again. "When I was flying up to the roof, I noticed a room on the first floor that I thought was an office. I didn't have a great view from my angle, so all I saw in that room was a desk. Now that I think about it some more, it's possible it could've been a library."

Lucy almost mentioned that she also had a library on the first floor, but caught herself at the last second. Unfortunately, the ground began to shake once more, and she knew that the whole team had been caught.

The four maids that had mocked her and Lisanna before launched from the floor, long pikes in their hands that they wielded menacingly. "Intruder alert! Virgo!" they shouted as they charged at the wizards.

"Raaawr!" Happy jumped to the front, still wearing the skull mask. The maids dropped their weapons and began to run in the opposite direction, screaming something about getting away from the tiny blue monster.

The excitement didn't end there, as the giant lead maid with the pink pigtails erupted from behind them. With a growl, she lunged at the four, and seemingly pancaked Natsu into the ground. Lucy gasped, but Lisanna and Happy didn't seemed very phased. They didn't look very surprised, either, when Natsu pressed the giant figure off of himself, unlike the maid. This left her prone, and she caught a flaming kick for her troubles, sending her through the wall.

"Let's check out the first floor, then!" he grinned as he hopped the guardrail. Lisanna followed his lead, her agility on display as she landed gracefully next to the boy. Lucy, knowing the disastrous results if she attempted the two-story jump, instead caught a ride with Happy.

The set of double doors to their left immediately grabbed their attention. The next closest entrance was on the other side of the wall, suggesting it was a very large room. Lisanna confirmed that it was the room she glimpsed into if her bearings were correct. She and Natsu pulled the doors open, and were astounded at the vast amassing of books along the curving walls, the shelves stacked all the way to the ceiling.

"I never would've guessed Everlue was so into books," Lucy said, unable to help a small grin on her face as she gazed upon the rows of literature. The library she'd had at home was nothing to scoff at, but this selection was in a class of its own.

"There's gotta be a million books in here! How're we supposed to find the one we need?" Natsu demanded hysterically as he grabbed at his hair. From the look in his eyes, it was clear he was struggling against what he thought was the best answer, setting the whole room ablaze.

"Alphabetical order?" Happy suggested.

"They don't seem to be in any particular order," Lisanna noted as she and Lucy began sweeping through the shelves. There was no pattern as to how they were categorized, either by title or author's name. Not even by genre, they discovered as they read across the spines.

"What's the book called again?" Natsu asked after composing himself, beginning to study the walls.

"_Daybreak_," Lucy answered quickly. It had momentarily slipped her mind that they had encountered Everlue's help earlier. He was sure to know of their presence by now, meaning they were in a big time crunch if they wanted to avoid any further complications.

Natsu peered out into his section of the library for another second, before turning around and walking over to Lucy's. He reached up to the shelf above her head, near the corner she hadn't gotten to yet, and plucked out a thick yellow hardback book. He held up to her with a raised eyebrow, as Happy and Lisanna turned over to them. "This is it, right?"

Indeed, _Daybreak _was printed across the top of the cover in bold capital letters, above a rectangular picture of the rising sun. "Yeah!" she said with a big grin, greedily swiping it from his hands as if it contained her share of the 2 million Jewel within its pages. "How'd you know where to find it?"

He only shrugged in response, but his best friends lauded his accomplishment.

"So that's what you wizards were after this entire time!" a cackling voice was heard, underneath them, of all places. Duke Everlue drilled his way through the library floor, appearing with a sneer. "You came out all this way, just to steal a book that isn't even worth being compared to garbage?"

"What?" Lucy asked, speaking up for her team's confusion. They had expected Everlue to be upset over the theft, but not to slam the book at the same time. It was only then that the girl noticed who the author of the story was, spotting his name below the sun. "This was written by Kemu Zaleon? He was an amazing novelist! How could any of his works be called worse than garbage? I've gotta read it!"

She cracked open the cover, surprising her friends, but infuriating Everlue. "Get your grubby little hands off of my possession! No matter how pathetic an attempt at an epic it is, _Daybreak _belongs to me!" he snapped.

"This isn't really a great time for that, you know," Happy said pointedly to the blonde.

"Hold on a sec," Lucy said, frowning as she skimmed over the first page, "This is too strange... Guys! I think there's a secret hidden in this book!"

"A secret?" the rest of the room asked, the Duke included.

Everlue's eyes narrowed at the thought. Could the girl be bluffing? Or was there really something more to _Daybreak_ than just the waste of paper he thought of it as? "Vanish Brothers!" he bellowed out. The bookshelves along the right wall jutted out and slid apart, revealing a dark passageway, occupied by two tall men with an air of danger around them. The larger of them scowled down at them from under a headband, while the smaller clutched a giant frying pan behind his back. In one quick movement, they went from the opening in the wall, to the side of their employer. "Retrieve that book! And hold nothing back!"

"That emblem... they're mercenaries from the Southern Wolves guild!" Happy realized, catching the insignia on their sleeves. "They must be the ones that killed the other wizards for Everlue!"

Panic shook up Lucy, but her resolve didn't waver. "Guys! If you could please buy me some time with this book, I think I can figure out what Kemu Zaleon was really trying to say!"

Natsu smirked at the pair of hitmen, cracking his knuckles invitingly. "You three get out of here. With the 2 million Jewel we're getting for that thing, I'll buy you all the time you need."

"You mean to take us on by yourself?" the shorter one inquired, looking somewhat impressed by the declaration.

"You're a cocky little punk, aren't ya?" the taller one said, rolling his shoulders in preparation for combat.

"Are you sure about this?" Lisanna asked as Lucy started for the side door. Natsu didn't take his eyes off the enemies, but nodded his head with a low chuckle in reply. She followed Lucy and Happy out of the library, having full confidence that he'd be able to take care of himself against Everlue's assassins. They cut through the adjacent room and back into the main hall, pausing as there was no one around. "How do you know there's a secret in the book?" she asked, staying alert as she remained aware of the propensity of the mansion's inhabitants to appear from the ground.

"The author, Kemu Zaleon, was a wizard as talented at magic as he was at writing," Lucy explained, holding the book close to her. "I thought I'd read all of his books, so this must be a one-of-a-kind, unpublished novel. But when I looked at the first page, the diction he used, the sentence structuring, it was basically semi-coherent word salad; nothing at all like his previous works. Kaby never did tell us why he wanted this book destroyed, but if he's willing to pay so much for it, I figured there must be a message somewhere in that jumbled mess that he doesn't want anyone to discover!"

"Can you figure it out?" Happy asked.

Lucy smiled as she pulled on a pair of glasses, with wing-like extensions decorating the corners of the red frames. "With these Gale-Force Reading Glasses, it should only take a few minutes!"

"Unfortunately, that's all the time you have left in this world!" a familiar high-pitched voiced sounded out. Everlue popped out from the middle of the room, but he wasn't alone. His head maid, the giant with pink hair, was right behind him. The mayor pointed at the girls and Happy, grinning madly. "Now, Virgo! Take care of them and get me back my book! I have to know of its secret for myself!"

"Master!" the maid acknowledged in her booming tone, preparing to launch forward.

"Lucy! I'll hold her off! Get to somewhere safe and decode that message! Destroy it when you're done!" Lisanna commanded, moving in front of her friend. "Happy, go with her. Make sure nothing happens to her, alright?"

"Aye!" Happy said, ushering Lucy away before she could ask whether Lisanna would be alright, facing off against the oversized servant on her own.

They slipped through the nearest foreign door, just as the white-haired girl began to glow with her Take Over Magic. It was a dark, cramped supply closet filled with brooms, mops, and other cleaning supplies, as well as the lances they had seen Everlue's help carrying before. As Lucy was about to suggest trying another room, Happy pushed aside some of the weapons, uncovering an old door that had been obscured in the dim light. Opening it, it revealed a descending staircase, leading into an even blacker unknown.

Lucy pushed through her nerves, and carefully made her way down as Happy hopped from step to step. A noxious smell assaulted their senses, growing stronger as they continued on. When they reached the bottom, they found the source of the stench as they came to a stop at a sewer bank, the water flowing a murky brown in front of them.

She leaned against the wall beside the stairs and opened _Daybreak_ again, activating her glasses. Their magic illuminated the pages as they flipped towards the back cover at an amazing speed, her eyes widening at the revelation secreted away. "This is incredible," she exhaled, her heart racing at the truth of the book.

A loud clang rang suddenly throughout the underground, and a pair of hands grabbed at Lucy's wrists. Caught in the vicegrips, the hands cuffed her arms behind her back, causing _Daybreak _to fall with a flat thud. Everlue's triumphant snickering sent despair throughout Lucy's body, as she felt his stuffy breathing on the back of her neck. "Care to share what you've learned of my book?" he asked, his tone as vile as the waters of the sewer.

**- 0 -**

Natsu grinned at the mercenaries from across the library, excited flames enveloping his entire being before quieting down to simply around his fists. After having restrained himself in his last battle to protect Macao from the Vulcan's Take Over, he intended to have fun going all out on the pair of enemies.

"If your friends were any good in a fight, maybe you should've had them stick around," the first Vanish Brother, the one with the pan, said confidently as he crouched into a fighting stance.

"A Fire Wizard like you won't be able to even touch us," the second followed up with heavy condescension.

This is only served to throw kindle into the fire in Natsu's belly. "Oh yeah?" he asked, waving them forward with his hand. "If you're so sure about that, then bring it on!"

The first brother again moved at the high speeds they'd displayed before. As Natsu tracked him across the room, he suddenly felt a powerful kick collide against his side, sending him flying through the library's window. He rolled through the impact against the grassy lawn, shards of glass falling from his skin and clothes as he regained a vertical base.

The second brother stayed on the offensive, again throwing himself at Natsu, but this time he sidestepped his spinning kick. The first then correctly tailed his dodge, and was able to score another blow, striking him in the abdomen with the butt of his pan.

"Do you know why we're so successful against wizards?" the second asked from beneath his headband, looking down at Natsu as he stood again, slower this time. "Because where you're weak, we're the strongest."

"Wizards spend all their time training with magic, so they neglect to build up their bodies," the first continued, twirling his pan. "For all your magical abilities, your frail bones shatter easily against mercenaries, specimens in peak physical condition. You might as well be sheep, compared to wolves like us."

Natsu smirked, his quiet laugh enabling the second's rage. "What's so funny?" he demanded. His brother held up an arm to keep him from acting rashly.

"How wrong you guys are," Natsu answered with a fanged grin as his hair hung over his eyes, giving him a menacing look. "I get hit harder than that on a regular basis back at the guild. In Fairy Tail, we all push each other to be the strongest we can be, and that includes both magically _and_ physically. So if that was the best you could do, then I'll tell you right now, you wouldn't stand a chance against any member from my guild."

The second brother snarled, unbound as the first lowered his arm. "I've had enough of your crap! Combo attack!"

The smaller brother held out his pan directly in front of him, setting it up as a catapult for the larger. "Heaven and Earth Annihilation!" they exclaimed in unison. The first of the two launched his brother high into the air, the tree leaves shrouding him from Natsu's sight.

"Gaze up at heaven, and it's the earth's assault!" the smaller shouted as he swiped at Natsu with his pan. The mage had braced himself for an attack, but not against the brother on the ground.

"Keep your eyes on the earth, and heaven strikes from above!" the second said as he crashed through the branches with a meteor-like kick on the distracted Natsu.

As the dust and dirt billowed about, the Vanish Brothers stood together, smirking with grandeur at their mission accomplished. However, their grins disappeared when a dark outline appeared through the fading cloud, standing completely straight.

"That wasn't bad at all," Natsu said as the air cleared fully, revealing his pugnacious smile, "but that was your one shot to do some real damage. You didn't." He sucked in a lungful of air, then with a mighty cry, let loose a jet of flames from his mouth. "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The Vanish Brothers' faces lit up once more. The wizard had played right into their hands. "Let me show you just why Fire Magic is useless against us!" the smaller one said, shielding himself and his brother with his oversized pan. "Flame Cooking!"

Natsu's breath attack was blocked by the pan, leaving behind a smoldering mark where it had struck. The brother then twirled his weapon about, brandishing the head of the pan behind his back, facing towards Natsu. "While we don't use magic ourselves, this pan is enchanted to absorb any elemental spells, and reflect it right back at you with twice the force!" True to his words, the pan shot back a huge fireball at Natsu, striking him to create a great explosion.

Once again, Natsu enjoyed the look of victory turn into one of shock on the brothers' faces when he ate up all the fire surrounding him, even vacuuming up flames on the outer perimeter of the crater that had begun to burn at the trees. "Twice as strong, huh? You weren't kidding," he said as he wiped his chin, his gleaming eyes turning reptilian-like. "Now let's try this one more time! Fire Dragon's Roar!"

The infernal torrent erupted from his mouth again, with his pair of enemies lifting the pan in the way of his attack. It took only seconds before the pan began to glow white-hot as Natsu's flames blazed through its enchantment, unable to contain the searing temperatures thanks to the massive magical boost they had inadvertently injected into him. Overwhelmed by the sheer power, an even bigger explosion rocked around the Vanish Brothers. When the black smoke cleared, Natsu saw them a charred mess, and the whole side of the mansion gone, incinerated from the foundation to the rooftop.

"Sorry, Gramps," Natsu said, rubbing the back of his neck at the property damage. "You'll probably be getting a letter about this."

**- 0 -**

"Penguin Soul!" Lisanna shouted as Happy and Lucy disappeared into a door at the end of the hall. She grew to match the size of Virgo, becoming the mother penguin to the baby form she had used the day before at Mt. Hakobe.

Virgo jumped at the wizard, lowering her shoulder for a frenzied tackle. Lisanna, with considerable agility in the form, was able to evade the charge, and strike back with a kick of her great webbed feet. Virgo tried to dodge, but caught a glancing blow across her upper arm. She hopped back to create distance, then began to sink into the ground with her Diver Magic.

Seconds passed, with Lisanna steadily pivoting in place, trying to anticipate where she would reemerge from. Unfortunately, the penguin's senses left her unable to predict where the attack would be coming from. She turned away from it just a moment too soon, and was struck with a hammer-like club across her back. She was sent stumbling forward, but her momentum was halted when she felt a pair of chains wrap around her flippers.

Virgo flew over her, twisting in the air to face her. The shackles around her wrists had extended their chains to hold Lisanna in place, the metal links rattling as she ran towards her again. As she picked up speed, Lisanna had the quick of mind to shift into another Take Over.

"Grizzly Soul!" she cried, shrinking back to her human form in a Partial spell. She was freed from the chains as they collapsed around her smaller figure, which was now covered by a mint-green sports top and matching short shorts. Jagged black streaks went up the sides of her new outfit, while brown fur sprouted from her ankles and forearms. Claws like daggers tipped her pawed hands and feet, and her newly round ears poked out of her white hair.

She stood her ground against Virgo's collision, then pushed her back with such force, she went crashing into the gigantic golden stature of Everlue that the staircase spiraled around. As the maid began to wearily climb out of the rubble, she noticed through her blurry sight that the girl's body had become much more muscularly defined.

"I might be smaller than I was earlier, but this is the strongest Take Over I've got," Lisanna said with a smile, omitting the fact that the form's brute strength came without much of an increase in speed. "My Grizzly's senses will also let me hear and smell you wherever you might dig around, so you won't be able to overpower me, and you won't be able to sneak up on me again. Wanna call it quits?"

"I was tasked with defeating you. I must fulfill my duties to Master Everlue," she said stiffly, as if she had no choice in the matter.

"Why do you even serve a despicable man like him, anyway?" Lisanna inquired, trying to reason with her enemy. "I can tell you're not like him, so why hang around?"

Virgo brushed away the dirt on her maid's apron. She had gotten back on her feet, but it was evident that Lisanna's toss, as well as the fire-enhanced kick from Natsu earlier, had taken a toll on her. "He possesses my key. I am contracted to him," she replied, again empty of feeling.

Key? Contract? Those were words that Lucy used when she was talking about her brand of magic earlier. And if Lisanna remembered correctly about what she'd read on the Golden Keys, they were named after the zodiac constellations...

"It all makes sense now. You're a Celestial Spirit, aren't you?" she asked. A thought occurred to her, casting a fanged smile on her face. "You deserve someone kind to be your master, and I know just the person. What would it take to break your contract with Everlue?"

"A kind master?" Virgo asked, her face showing hints of intrigue and hope. "If Everlue were to be incarcerated, his magic would be nullified by the authorities. That would extend to our contract, making it null and void." She then squared her shoulders, positioning herself to attack again. "But so long as our agreement is in place, I am still obligated to follow his wishes."

Virgo then pounded the floor with both hands, causing sharp rock protrusions to spike up in a rapid line towards Lisanna. The Take Over mage countered with a similar maneuver, striking the ground herself just before Virgo's attack reached her. The impact of her blow created a crescent trench to stop the protrusions, and Lisanna took off, running towards her opponent with claws bared.

The maid rocketed her chains at the girl, trying to restrain her once more. Lisanna, not fast enough in her Grizzly form to evade them, instead borrowed a page from her brother's playbook. She stuck out her left arm, allowing it to be wrapped up by both sets of chains. With her right paw, she slashed through her steel binds, sending the broken links flying. With a cry, she jumped up to meet the surprised Virgo, and landed a powerful closed strike to her temple.

The mansion shook as Virgo soared into the far wall. Sure of the fact that she wouldn't be getting up again, Lisanna reverted back to her normal self, panting as she surveyed the damage. "I'm really sorry about that," she smiled apologetically. "I promise, you'll never be hurt again because of Everlue."

A powerful explosion behind her caused her to shield the back of her head. Slowly, she turned around, and saw that the whole wall had been torched, allowing a smoky view of the outside. Recognizing the culprit's handiwork, she smiled, and waited as Natsu stepped through the flames to join her in finding Lucy.

**- 0 -**

"_Daybreak _is mine! Any secrets it contains were meant for me!" Everlue said, tightening his grip on Lucy's wrists. "If you won't tell me what it is, then you'll leave me with no choice but to force it out of you!"

"Just like you forced Kemu Zaleon to write this book for you?" Lucy spat back, trying to keep the strain from showing in her voice. "I know you blackmailed and imprisoned him, you monster!"

"Monster?!" Everlue snarled in shock. His grasp constricted so much that Lucy was sure her wrists would break, but before they reached that point, she suddenly felt herself freed.

Happy barreled into Everlue with a kick to the face, causing him to release the girl. In a quick motion, she snatched up the book off the ground, just as Happy swooped her up and carried her some yards away. She gave him a nod of thanks, as he repeated the motion with a smile. Everlue growled at the both of them.

"How did you discover that information?" he demanded in a low voice, holding his left cheek, where Happy had struck him. "There's no way you should be able to know that. Is that the secret hidden within my book? Did Zaleon mean to expose me?"

Lucy smirked at him, alternating which hand held _Daybreak_ as she consoled her throbbing wrists. "Wouldn't you like to know," she stated ambiguously.

Everlue slowly began to sink into the ground again, keeping his eyes fixed on the girl all the while. "I warned you," he said ominously as he disappeared fully.

"For three years you had one of the most talented writers of his time locked up, forcing him to write a story where you were the main character!" Lucy accused as she and Happy anxiously waited for him to make his move. "You had Zaleon narrate you as some sort of hero, even as you taunted him from outside his cell with threats against his family!"

"It was an honor for him to get to use me as inspiration for a book!" Everlue cried wildly, his voice clear coming up through the tunnel, and echoing around the sewer. "Any other writer would've been overjoyed at the chance, but he had the audacity to refuse my offer! I was merely prompting him to see the errors in his judgment!"

Before Lucy could reply, he sprang up from beneath her. Happy was barely able to pull her away in time, but Everlue soared up into the ceiling, swimming into its concrete as easily as he did the floor's. A moment later, he drilled through the wall and torpedoed towards the duo again, but she was able to roll out of the way. His onslaught continued, without success, for another handful of attempts, but he stopped to look upon Lucy's tired expression with a grin.

"But those are the kind of details that are better left underground," he said, resuming his dark composure as he began to walk towards her. "Six feet under."

"So you're gonna try to kill us, just like you killed those other wizards before us?" Lucy asked, rooted to her spot partly in fear, partly in determination.

The short man chuckled. "I don't intend on merely trying. Even if your friends somehow managed to survive against Virgo and the Vanish Brothers, I am more than capable of getting my own hands dirty. After all, I have the most beautiful staff in the world to clean up after me, and the knights of this town are quite an agreeable bunch of trash collectors."

"Not that I think humans are especially smart-looking, but you're even dumber than I thought," Happy said with a big smile. "And that can go on the record, too, Lucy."

That froze Everlue in his tracks. "What are you talking about?" he demanded as the color drained from his face.

Lucy, with an all-knowing smirk, reached behind her and pulled out a shiny lacrima orb that fit comfortably in her hand. It began to glow as Everlue's voice filled the tunnel, but not from the man's grimacing lips. _"But those are the kind of details that are better left underground. Six feet under."_

"Our little buddy here sure carries some interesting things in that pack of his," she said, sharing a triumphant smirk with Happy, "like this recording lacrima, for one. He passed it off to me just before you made it down here. Now, I wonder what the Magic Council would think if they heard our whole conversation?"

Everlue's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, his veins bulging through his neck and forehead. "I'm going to tear your arms off and take my book and that lacrima!" he screamed, flying off the rails. He began to spiral his way through the ground once more, creating a powerful rumble beneath Lucy's feet.

The girl only smiled, having the politician right where she wanted him. She just needed one final push to really send him over the edge.

"Open, Gate of the Giant Crab! Cancer!" she said as she unhooked one of her Golden Keys, and pointed it up towards the ceiling. In a series of flashing lights, a tall, slender man with stylish glasses and six crab legs sticking out of his back appeared, snipping a pair of crustacean-themed scissors in each hand.

"Is it time for a haircut, baby?" he asked in a smooth, jazzy voice.

"You have a giant crab spirit?" Happy cried as he began to drool. "Lucy, you are so totally cool."

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a hint of smugness, then turned to her spirit. "Cancer, there's actually someone else who needs a bit of a trim. I'm thinking a zero would fit him perfectly."

"You got it, baby."

Everlue shot out of the ground, looking as deranged as ever as he flew towards Lucy. However, Cancer intercepted his attack, and the sound of metal sliding against each other rapidly was heard throughout the sewer. Everlue dropped to the ground in shock, just as his hair and mustache poofed off his head and upper lip.

"What have you done?" he asked as he felt the bare patches of skin with trembling hands, his gaze empty. He staggered over to the edge of the canal, using his reflection to witness for himself what had Happy barely able to contain his giggling. "What have you done?!" he repeated in hysteria. "What have you done?! What have you done?!"

"I've won, that's what!" Lucy said, grabbing the whip she carried on her belt. She slung it at the catatonic Everlue, wrapping him from his ankles, all the way up to his newly-bald head. Unable to do anything but continue to sob his question, Lucy flung him with all her strength into the wall that he normally would've submerged into like water. She and Happy approached his unconscious body as the dust began to clear, finding him with his crazed expression made even creepier with his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Hey!" they heard a young man shout behind them. Natsu and Lisanna appeared at the foot of the stairs, then jogged up to them as they saw the tied-up Everlue without his hair, his unresponsive face stuck in a mask of pure horror. "Whoa! What did you do to this guy, Lucy?" he asked with approving curiosity, as Lisanna looked perturbed over his shoulder.

"Any man who thinks I'm ugly has to be bordering on insanity," she stated darkly, but quickly reverted back to her usual cheery self. "When I discovered the true story within _Daybreak_, I understood just how unhinged Everlue really was. I simply took from him the stability of his safety net by getting him to confess to his crimes and recording it for the Magic Council... and embarrassing him by cutting off all his hair."

"Great job," Lisanna commended with a smile.

"I had help," Lucy responded humbly, motioning to the cat and the crab-man. "I couldn't have done it without these guys."

"She really couldn't have," Happy said with a paw raised, happy to take the credit.

"Anytime, baby," Cancer responded with a nod, clicking away with his scissors before disappearing back into the Celestial World.

"Alright, then," Natsu smirked in ultimate victory, holding up the book he'd grabbed from Lucy. "Let's go take this back to Kaby!"

**- 0 -**

As they exited the Everlue mansion, Lucy was astonished to see half of the building burned away. Her awe tripled when what remained of the once-great household collapsed in implosion, thanks to the tunnels Everlue had dug up sinking in on themselves, and aided by all the structural damage caused by the fighting. The commotion had been heard all over town, drawing both concerned citizens and the Knights Unit alike to the front gates.

When the authorities began to question what had happened, Lucy played Everlue's admission from her lacrima for all the crowd to hear. Before it got to the part where the authorities were incriminated as accomplices, a lone knight with a distinct scar pattern on the left side of his face stepped in and assured her quietly that he was actually an undercover Rune Knight investigating Everlue's activities. When he proved it with his tattoo insignia, the Fairy Tail wizards turned over both the lacrima and the tied-up mayor to only him, leaving the bald man's and the corrupt officials' fates in the hands of the Magic Council.

And_ Daybreak_ hadn't been the only item Lucy acquired from Everlue. As they had dragged him up from the basement, Lisanna had revealed to her the truth of his head maid. Searching through his coat pockets, she indeed found Virgo's Golden Key, and added it to her ringed collection, promising to care for her and treat her with the respect that her depraved former master had neglected to show.

When the team made it back to Kaby's mansion, they took the same spots on the living room furniture as before, _Daybreak _set upon the coffee table in between.

"I can't express how much it gladdens me that this book is out of Everlue's possession. I also appreciate the fact that you brought it to me, so I could personally rid the world of it myself," the client said with a thankful smile shared with his wife. He began to reach for the novel, but Lucy picked it up first.

"Just one second, Kaby," she said, pulling it back towards her. "You never did tell us why you needed this book destroyed so badly. If you don't mind, we'd like to hear your reasons as to why you want to get rid of the last thing Kemu Zaleon ever wrote - or should I say, Zekua Melon, your father."

Kaby was shocked that Lucy knew, as it was not widely known that 'Kemu Zaleon' was merely a pen name. With a pained sigh, he began his explanation. "Thirty-one years ago, my father returned home after a three-year absence as a shell of the man he once was. The first thing he did after stumbling through the door was vow to never write again, and cut off his right arm."

The Fairy Tail wizards gasped as the thought was displayed in their minds.

"He never made a full recovery, as he passed away shortly after. Before that, he told me with an oddly peaceful smile that the book he had written for Duke Everlue had been rubbish. Even after I'd warned him not to work for that wretched man, he was unable to resist the lure of the money Everlue had presented. He was gone for the next three years, working on a novel that that been the low point of his abilities. I berated him for selling out his family and pride as a writer, saying things I would eventually come to regret. I knew that I could never take back those harsh words, but I thought that if I destroyed the book that had caused him so much suffering, then his legacy would be preserved, and his honor restored."

"So, you're not aware of the secret inside _Daybreak_?" Lucy asked.

"What secret?"

The blonde girl held the book out to him. As soon as it was in Kaby's hands, it began to glow, filling the room a blinding light. As their vision grew accustomed to the vibrancy, they were able to make out links of words pouring out from the book, creating a spectacle for the six people.

"_Daybreak_, the book that Kemu Zaleon wrote for Duke Everlue, might've been a horrible piece of literature, but the story that Zekua Melon hid inside it with a spell is undoubtedly the signature masterpiece that every novelist hopes to someday tell," Lucy said.

As she spoke, the letters of the title lifted off the cover, then rearranged themselves to reveal its true name: _Dear Kaby_.

"Your father loved you very much, Kaby. That's what that book is truly about, a father's love of his son, as all the words were scattered out of place to form more or less the tale Everlue wanted. He didn't stop writing due to shame; it was because he would never be able to surpass the story he left for you. I'm sorry that it took so long for it to get to its true owner, but now that words are in the right order, we hope that you'll enjoy reading it."

"Thank you so much," Kaby said, holding the book to his chest as tears brimmed at the corners of his eyes, his wife tenderly gripping his knee with a gracious smile. "Truly, thank you."

Lucy, Natsu, Lisanna and Happy all smiled at the sight, then shared the smiles within their circle, proud of what they had accomplished on this day.

* * *

><p><em>Alright, now that you finished the chapter, you can enjoy my author's notes at the end here. As I said at the top, this is the last time a full arc will be covered in two chapters. I realize the first two installments were quite short in comparison to these two, but that's the nature of writing. I really enjoyed how this adventure all came together, it left me feeling like it's a definitive, satisfying piece of work for me. Hopefully you think so, too.<em>

_We got another one of Lisanna's Partial Take Overs here, this time her Grizzly Soul. I love Lisanna's powers, as I've been a big Animorphs fan for most of my life, so I like getting to pay homage to it through her. If you're familiar with the series, I hope you recognized why I went with the grizzly bear for what I'm deeming Lisanna's physically strongest form. Rachel, that one's for you._

_Now, as far as the rotating cast I promised at the beginning of this fic, so far we've seen just Lucy, Natsu, Lisanna and Happy having all the fun. In canon, the next arc, Lullaby was when the core was expanded with the additions of Gray and Erza. I'll be mirroring the numbers gain, of course, but will it really be those two joining in on the Eisenwald hit squad? You'll just have to stay tuned to find out!_

_As always, I'm really grateful for your readership and for those that take time to leave reviews. Thanks for the ones I got for the first couple of chapters, and a thanks in advance for the ones I'll be getting for this one. You guys totally rock!_


	5. Lullaby Arc - Part 1

_Your anticipation ends here, as I give you the fifth chapter, the beginning of the Lullaby arc. I first wanna say thanks for the feedback, and then I'd like to take a sec to explain a key difference between the real version, and my reimagining of Daybreak._

_In canon, Kaby was offering a lot of money that he didn't actually have, to complete a job that had already gotten some wizards killed. This always bugged me, as they're not exactly marks of a stand-up guy, so I opted to write him more like the gentlemen we're supposed to believe he is. As for Everlue, I played up his corruption and rampant craziness. It wasn't my intention to create a darker atmosphere around the whole arc, but I thought it worked well._

_Anywho, I'll leave you to read on and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<br>- The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning -**

When Natsu turned down Kaby's reward of the 2 million Jewel, Lucy tried to fight his decision. Even after he explained that they technically didn't complete the job as initially requested by not destroying _Daybreak_, she argued that Kaby had been more than happy with the results of their work. Lisanna backed the Dragon Slayer by saying it wouldn't be a good reflection on their guild if they accepted the money regardless. Lucy eventually came to see their point, as Happy had included that they had become better people and more experienced wizards from the adventure. He added that at the very least, she came away with knowing one of her favorite authors' greatest story, as well as a new Golden Key. She had gained the most out of them all, something she took solace in, even as she grumbled about her rent money all the way back to Magnolia.

The next morning, Lucy quickly tidied up her apartment as she awaited her guests. Once she finished dusting off her bookcase, she went to her mirror to check up on her appearance. As she gave her hair one last brush-through, a knock was heard at the door. She rushed to open it, but her smile disappeared when she saw no one there.

"Down here, Lucy," Happy said, getting Lucy to angle her line of sight lower. The cat walked in past her boots, and hopped up to take a seat on Lucy's bed. He kicked his feet as he looked around. "Nice place."

"Thanks," Lucy replied heartily, but then her tone grew more serious. "Aren't Lisanna and Natsu coming?"

"They are," Happy assured her. "Natsu still hasn't woken up, so Lisanna's on her way over to our house to get him out of bed. I decided to fly on ahead."

Lucy smiled in relief. "Great," she said. "How come you wanted to come over by yourself? The way you stick to Natsu's side, I didn't think you guys were ever apart if you could help it."

Happy smiled sincerely. "Because I like you," he answered simply.

She was a little surprised at his reply. Up until that point, she didn't think he thought very highly of her, considering most of what he said to her was at best a backhanded compliment. "You can understand why I could probably think otherwise, right?"

"Yeah," he said, inclining his head somewhat. "I just like to play around. It's how I was raised, kinda. Everyone picks on each other at the guild, but it's all in good fun. I know I have a real knack for teasing, but I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way. I really do like you a lot, and not just because you make it so easy for me. I think you're totally awesome."

"Thanks," Lucy said, smiling as she patted him on the head. She snickered mentally, knowing now the cat's game, and that she could play along, as well.

Another rapping at the door meant another of her guests had arrived. This time the door revealed Cana, who held out a decoratively wrapped bottle of wine. "Call it a housewarming gift," she said, grinning as Lucy received it.

"Uh, thanks," she said as she allowed Cana to pass through, "but, I don't drink."

The brunette nodded thoughtfully as she sat down at the table. "I did notice you never order anything at the hall." Lucy offered her to keep the wine to herself, and she agreed with only the slightest bit of hesitation. "So who else is coming to this party?" she wondered as she waved at Happy.

"Natsu and Lisanna should be on their way. I wanted to ask Levy over too, but she didn't return to the guild hall last night," Lucy explained. Upon returning from Shirotsume Town, Lucy spent some more time down at their base to chat with Cana, telling her all about the _Daybreak _job. Just as she did with Lisanna (and later extended to Natsu and Happy), she invited her to come watch as she worked out a contract with her two new Celestial Spirits. She would've liked to have Levy present as well, but she learned that Team Shadow Gear had accepted a mission that would take them out of town for a couple of days.

As Cana turned down a glass of water in favor of twisting off the bottlecap, Lisanna and Natsu appeared at her door. The girl excitedly took in Lucy's cozy housing, while a groggy Natsu plopped onto her bed next to Happy, sitting cross-legged on the mattress. "Alright, let's see how you..." he started before slipping into a yawn.

With Cana and Lisanna looking on from her table, Lucy gave herself the open space left as she activated the Silver Key she had bought back in Hargeon. "Open, Gate of the Little Dog! Come, Nikola!"

A golden orb appeared in front of her, losing its glow after a moment and stretching to take an anthropomorphic form. The end result was a shivering white figure with a large round head and a long, carrot-like nose that hummed nervously but cheerfully.

"He's so cute!" Lucy and Lisanna clamored. Lucy took him into her arms and hugged him tightly, as Lisanna held her hands together in anticipation for her turn. Cana agreed with the sentiment but didn't express it like a schoolgirl, instead admiring the creature with a smile from afar. Natsu and Happy, however, weren't necessarily as impressed.

"Yeah, he's a pretty cute dog and all, but can he fight?" the fire mage pondered.

"That's supposed to be a dog?" Cana asked with a raised eyebrow, but her skepticism went unnoticed.

"Spirits like this aren't used for fighting," Lucy explained as she set him in front of her. "Since they really don't take up much magic power to summon, most wizards simply keep them around as kind of like pets."

"Pets, huh?" Happy repeated with a frown, finding the idea unsavory.

"Now then," Lucy continued, pulling out a small notepad as she addressed her new friend. "Let's work out our contract together. Are you free Mondays?"

As she went through the list, asking the same question for every day of the week, the little white dog nodded or shook his head in response. Once they were finished, Lucy picked him up once again, snuggling her cheek against his, before passing him off so Lisanna could hold him too.

"It's that simple?" Cana asked, trying to keep from sounding envious as the white-haired girl across from her played with the spirits' paws, beaming down at him.

Lucy nodded. "I know it might not seem like a very big deal, but through the contracting process, we establish a deep connection. Celestial Spirits are conscious beings, just like us, so the promise between master and spirit is a sacred one. Now, what should I name him?"

"I thought you said his name was Nikola," Natsu said as he ate a yawn.

"That's his species as a whole," Lucy said as Lisanna set him on the floor, letting him wander back to the blonde. "This little guy needs a name of his own. How about... Plue?"

"It's perfect," Lisanna said with a smile. Cana also gave an approving nod, and Plue responded happily to his new moniker.

"Okay, Plue, I've got another spirit to make a contract with, but I'll be seeing you in a bit," Lucy said, giving him one last hug before sending him back to the Celestial World. She unhooked her latest Golden Key, and spoke the summoning chant. "Open, Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!"

"Alright, the giant maid! Now she was really cool!" Natsu cheered, shedding away what remained of his sleepiness.

After another burst of light from the spirit's gate, a pretty, slender young woman in a maid's uniform materialized through the glow, bowing at the waist. "Mistress," she addressed Lucy submissively. "How can I serve you today?"

"Wait just a sec," she said, looking down at her key in confusion. Everyone else but Cana also appeared unsure of what was going on. "Are you really Virgo?"

"I am," the girl replied. Other than being buttoned up in the front, Virgo's outfit remained the same, although her hair was let down from the pigtails they had originally seen her wearing. Her tone remained mostly neutral, but hints of joy could be picked up on as well. "I am very loyal to my master, so I can change my appearance to be more accommodating to their desires. This form is acceptable, yes, Mistress?"

"Actually, I liked you better before. Not that you don't look good now, but the big tough gorilla maid thing was awesome," Natsu cut in. In response, Virgo transformed back into the version that worked for Everlue, taking up most of the available space left in the apartment, bending what little neck she had against the ceiling.

"Ignore him! Go back to the girl!" Lucy said, worried that she might bust the roof of her brand-new house. Virgo shrunk back down, and the two proceeded to sort out the details of their contract together. Her availability included every day but Sunday, at any time of day or night.

"I look forward to serving you, Mistress," Virgo said as she bowed again. "I welcome whatever methods you have for punishing me."

"Why would I would punish you?" Lucy asked, somewhat put off by the inquisition. "Anyway, you don't have to refer to me as 'Mistress', you know."

"What would you prefer to be called? Is 'Princess' suitable?"

"No - actually, yeah, sure. 'Princess' works just fine."

With Virgo's return to the Celestial World, Lucy gave a quick tour of her apartment for the benefit of her late guests. Once she finished up, the five left for the guild hall, with Natsu leading the way, Happy at his side and Lisanna a step behind. Lucy and Cana trailed them a bit farther, allowing them to speak between themselves.

"So you drive a corrupt politician totally insane, and you get yourself a cute maid spirit that calls you 'Princess' and will do anything you ask her to," Cana said with a grin. "Lucy, you're a badass."

The blonde's cheeks flushed as the compliment. "I just wanna be the best wizard I can be. Whether people think of me as a badass doesn't matter."

"And humble, too," Cana winked, wrapping her arm easily around the shorter girl's shoulders. "When we get to the guild, no more of that simply hanging around me or Lisanna's group, alright? It's time you branch out and meet some of the other folks, got it? I know some of the guys would love to have a chance to talk to you."

When they arrived at the hall, Lisanna sat down with her siblings, while Natsu and Happy went to scour the request board for more work. Cana automatically headed to the bar, but left for a table after placing her order. She motioned to Lucy to follow her, as she came to sit at the table occupied solely by Gray. The two old friends greeted one another, as the Celestial Wizard took the spot next to Cana.

"So you're Lucy, huh?" Gray asked, swirling the ice in his drink. His tone was passive, and his eyes didn't help in determining his thoughts, but he did offer a small smile.

"Yeah," she replied, smiling politely. To be honest, she wasn't sure what to make of the dark-haired boy. The very first thing he did when she first saw him was pick a fight with Natsu, just as soon as they'd walked through the doors. Then there was that stripping tendency of his, but according to Cana, there was a valid reason for that. If it wasn't for the brunette speaking so highly of him, Lucy might not have had a very good impression of him.

"I'd say welcome to Fairy Tail, but from what I've heard, you've already made yourself at home with this madhouse," Gray said. Cana's platter of drinks arrived, and he toasted with her before downing the liquid in his glass. Turning back to Lucy, he continued, "If you want some advice, I'd recommend against spending a lot of time with Natsu."

"Why's that?" she asked. Natsu might be a pretty weird guy (supported by the fact that he thought _she _was the weird one), but there wasn't any doubt in her mind that he was already a good friend.

"He's probably jealous at the idea of Natsu having another cute girl following him around," Cana joked as she reached for her second mug.

Gray shot her a dirty look, but otherwise didn't respond to her comment. "Look, I'm probably biased on this, since I'm the only one here that seems to find his face especially punchable. But honestly, the guy's completely reckless. He's the biggest reason why the Magic Council is always sending Gramps those angry letters, and that's _with_ Lisanna keeping him in line. One of these days, he's gonna screw up big, and I'm just saying, you probably won't wanna be around to get caught up in his mess."

Lucy would've liked to have pointedly informed Gray that she was able to look out for herself, but she could tell that, despite his stoic face, he was being genuine with his concern. And not just for her, but if she was reading between the lines correctly, for Natsu, as well. The two might've been bitter rivals, but as Lisanna had said before, they were also friends; brothers who rarely got along, but would have each other's backs in an instant if they needed it. Surely he would hate it if the Dragon Slayer got himself into serious trouble, if only because they wouldn't be able to fight about it later. It was touching, and Lucy found she could appreciate that about him.

"Anyway, I heard that you saved an entire town from a crazy, tyrannical, half-blind mayor?"

Somehow, Lucy just knew Happy was behind that particular rendition of her encounter with Everlue.

Cana began to correct him on the story, Lucy jumping in where she was fuzzy on the details, when Gray's eyes shifted to look behind the lovely ladies. They turned around to see Loke, the shades-wearing wizard giving them his most dazzling grin. "You know, I'm finding the real story is even better than the one going around," he said, leaning in close to the blonde. "I like the sound of a girl who can drive me crazy."

Lucy gave him an unimpressed smirk. "That's too bad," she said, her words coated with transparent charm. "You seem like such a nice guy, I'd hate to take what little sanity you must have left if that's what you'd want."

"Ouch," Loke clutched at his heart with a false wince, more of a wink than anything else, as the brunette laughed at Lucy's quip. "I guess Cana already got to you, then? Look, I can't help the fact that there are so many beautiful women in the world, and that the best of all seem to land here at Fairy Tail. I can only do my part in offering to make sure you're all treated like proper ladies. So what do you say, Lucy? At least give me a chance, please?"

"Just give it up," Cana said with a grin. "I know you love that hair of yours as much as you do girls, so you better watch out before Lucy summons her crab spirit to cut it all off."

"Crab spirit?" Loke's brow furrowed with familiarity. At that moment, Lucy held up a ring of jangling keys with her stamped hand, an eery smile on her face as she singled out one of the four golden artifacts. His eyes widened exponentially at the sight. "You're a... Celestial Wizard?" he choked out.

Lucy nodded smugly. "I'll tell you what: I'll let you take me out on a date, if you can get my spirits' approval. Sound like a fair deal?"

Perspiration dotted Loke's forehead as he took a few rigid steps back. "I have to... go, someplace, not here," he stammered unevenly before breaking into a run towards the front doors. He bolted outside hysterically, the guild hall pausing briefly at the sight before resuming its chatter.

"Why'd he get all weirded out?" Cana wondered, Lucy equally as perplexed. "I've never seen him lose his cool like that."

Gray shrugged. "He once told me the kinds of women he wouldn't date. It was a pretty short list, but for whatever reason Celestial Wizards made the cut. He must've known a total psycho if he's that freaked out by them."

Before the three could start up a casual conversation after Loke's departure, Natsu walked up to their table, Happy floating by his shoulder. "Hey Lucy, what'd you do to scare Loke so bad?" he inquired with a big grin. "His face was priceless!"

"Nothing. He just found out I was a Celestial Wizard."

"That's it?" Happy asked, he and his best friend looking disappointed by the simple answer.

"I guess Loke _does _have a line he won't cross," a feminine voice sounded to their sides. Mira and her siblings approached Gray's table, coming over from where they were usually gathered at the corner table. Mira took the spot next to Lucy to close her in between her and Cana, while the remainder of her team elected to stay on their feet. "Never would've guessed that it was something so obscure, though."

"There's only two girls in the guild that Loke won't make a move on," Cana began coyly as she and Mira scooted closer to a rapidly-reddening Lucy. A quick glance over at Lisanna insinuated she was one of them, the pair of boys beside her more than likely being the biggest reasons.

"Since he _is_ an admittedly handsome boy, do you feel lucky to be the third?" Mira continued suggestively as Lucy was practically smothered between them. "Or, maybe you feel a little let down instead?"

"Um... lucky?" she replied meekly. Cana and Mira exchanged cat-like grins, before sliding back on the bench to give her an appropriate amount of space as measured by the personal bubble philosophy.

She then became aware of the grins plastered on the faces of Natsu and Gray as they stared at one another across the table, the kind of smirks that she'd learned typically preceded blows in Fairy Tail.

"Have you ever worn a shirt past noon, Gray?" Natsu asked precariously.

"This coming from the guy who's never worn a shirt _at all_ under his vest?" Gray retorted.

Sparks flitted around Natsu's mouth as he spoke next. "If you wanna try to finish what you started the other day, I'm standin' right here."

Likewise, a chilling mist began to surround Gray as the boxer-clad boy rose from his seat. "You won't be standing for very long."

Elfman lead his younger sister back with a hand on her shoulder, giving the elemental wizards enough room to square off. Before either of them could pounce first, or Cana could remind Gray about his clothes, the guilds doors were thrown open by a returning Loke. Apparently, the somewhere else he had to be was just as frightening as Lucy's choice of magic, as he remained looking completely spooked.

"It's Erza!" he cried, his tinted glasses nearly slipping off his nose as he named the second Fairy Tail girl he wouldn't dare approach. "She's back!"

Immediately, the entirety of the guild's activities came to a halt. Everyone turned towards the doors as Loke ducked back inside, anxious gazes fixed in search of the imposing feminine figure on her way.

"Erza? The strongest woman in Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked about the fabled S-Class Wizard, looking around to see all the paled faces in the building. Mira was the only smile she could find, displaying a smirk not unlike the ones seen on Natsu and Gray moments before. Now, the boys were paralyzed along with the rest of their guildmates, probably what she thought was most surprising of all. How scary could Erza be if even the Dragon Slayer lost his nerve at her arrival?

"That's not as absolute as everyone might think," Mira whispered to Lucy, loud enough so only those surrounding her would hear. She angled her eyes as a spot in the distance grew into focus. It was a huge, horn-like item, seemingly carried one-handed by a lone person who gleamed in the sunlight. The hall was so quiet, Erza's footsteps grew audibly nearer as she approached. "But they're all so convinced of it, they all cower like misbehaved children whenever she comes back from a job."

Lucy wished to reply, but as Erza stepped into the building, she was able to make out her features. She was extremely attractive, rivaling Mira and Cana for the crown of most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. Her gorgeous red hair was just as eye-catching as the armor she wore over her torso and arms, the polished silver pieces that had made the guild squint as they reflected the sunlight.

Setting down the decorated horn that was easily twice her size, Erza scanned the still room. "Hello to you all," she said absently, greeting them as just a part of protocol. "Where is Master Makarov?"

"Erza," Mira nodded in reciprocation with her arms crossed, smirk intact. "The master's gone. He left earlier this morning for a Guild Master's meeting, and he won't be back for a few days."

The armored wizard hummed pensively. "I see."

Elfman cleared his throat, needing to keep his manly voice from cracking. "What's that thing you brought with you?" he asked. He thought he recognized what it was, but wasn't positive.

"It's the horn of the rhinocerox I defeated," she answered, confirming his suspicion. "The townspeople of the village it was terrorizing adorned it and allowed me to have it as a token of their gratitude."

Elfman nodded his head, feeling a pang of jealousy flash through him as he took in the bejeweled souvenir. That could've been his prize, if only...

Erza looked prepared to speak once again, but stopped herself as her eyes fell upon the pair of Macao and his best friend, Wakaba. The two pals had been drinking merrily and enjoying their usual conversation about the ladies in the guild, but Erza's return had crashed their party.

"Wakaba! How many times have I told you not to smoke inside the building?" she spoke, her authoritative voice straightening the man out from his incognito slump. He immediately put out the embers in his favorite pipe, the smoke wavering into nothingness as he followed orders. Erza then looked at Macao across from him, dread coloring his grimacing face. "And _you_, Macao... I heard what resulted with your Mt. Hakobe job. Even after I'd warned you about it, you decided to take your chances and go alone anyway. The next time you're looking for work, I suggest you pick a mission you can accomplish without having to involve a rescue team to go after you!"

Macao bowed his head. "I'm sorry, Erza. I won't be so reckless next time."

"I would hope not," she intoned strictly, before resuming what she was going to say before getting caught up with berating him and Wakaba. "Natsu. Gray."

"Hey, Erza," Gray said, forcing his lips to stretch out in a nervous smile. He and the pink-haired boy were standing side by side, arms around the other's shoulders, grinning together in a fashion Lucy was sure would convince no one as cheerful. "I'm just enjoying the company of my best bud in the whole world! Isn't that right, Natsu?"

"Aye!" Natsu chimed, stealing his real best friend's catchphrase.

Erza smiled, her face relaxing into a peaceful expression that was much more lovely on her than her stern gaze. "I'm very happy that the two of you were able to put aside your childhood differences and mature to be such good friends. It is for this reason that I need you both. Your chemistry together should prove an invaluable help to me."

The crowd gasped at the request, beginning to murmur about how Erza had never once asked for help. Lucy was also surprised, but it was more so from the fact that she bought the boys' act, and used it as her basis for coming to the two of them for aid. The most shocked of all, of course, were Natsu and Gray themselves.

"And what exactly is the mighty Erza facing now, that requires her to plead for help for the first time?" Mira asked smugly.

Erza glowered at her for a moment, until she gave in to answering the question only the model had dared ask. "While I was on the road, I overheard a conversation between what I thought were just normal wizards having a drink at the pub. It was only after I'd already left town that I placed the name one of them had mentioned: Erigor, the man they call The Reaper."

Mira grinned, again the only person in the guild to do so. "So those wizards must've been from the Dark Guild Eisenwald."

The red-haired woman nodded. "They were talking about needing to break the seal on a spell called Lullaby and taking it to Erigor. If someone who's made a name for himself by only taking assassination jobs like him has interest in it, then I imagine that it's a very powerful and dangerous magic. I wished to consult Master Makarov on the matter before taking action, but since he's away, I have no choice but to assemble a team with two of the strongest wizards here and go after Eisenwald."

"So you wanna take down a Dark Guild, huh?" Natsu asked, his eyes lighting up as he separated from Gray. "Sounds like fun."

"Except for the part about having to join up with _you_," Gray muttered so Erza wouldn't hear.

Before the ice mage could also vocalize his support, Mira brushed past him and walked up to Erza. She smirked as she looked her over from top to bottom, then bottom to top, one hand studiously under her chin as the other crossed her chest. "Hmmm..." she began as they finally made eye contact. "I think you better leave this job to me and _my_ team."

The guild let out another surprised gasp, hushed murmuring rising up once again. This time, the awe was lost on Lucy, as she was unclear with what the big deal was. "What's so strange with Mira offering to go in Erza's place?" she whispered to Cana.

"Mira rarely leaves the guild for stuff like this," she explained softly. "She's an S-Class Wizard like Erza, and she might be just as powerful, but she hardly ever goes on jobs that would demand the use of her Take Over Magic."

"How come?"

Cana was unable to respond, as Erza smiled confidently in the face of the request. "I appreciate your concern, Mirajane, but believe me, I'm fine -"

The white-haired woman cut her off, chuckling as she shook her head. "I figured you wouldn't admit to being exhausted. You just fought a rhinocerox - surely that was for an S-Class mission, right? - and dragged its horn back from whatever town you came from. You're in no condition to be going after an entire Dark Guild, Erza, even with back-up like Gray and Natsu," Mira assessed.

"I was planning on taking the night to rest and leaving tomorrow," Erza countered. Despite remaining of strong posture, Lucy found her appearing somewhat vulnerable for the first time since arriving.

"And by then, who knows what Erigor could've accomplished with that spell?" Mira continued to press. "My siblings and I could set out within the hour to stop him. Natsu will come with us, too, of course. Just tell us where you came across those Eisenwald wizards, and we'll take care of the rest."

"Are you sure that you're up for this yourself?" Erza asked, beginning to show signs of consideration for Mira's proposal. "This is a serious situation, so you should know there's no way you could avoid the battlefield if you go."

Mira had the slightest pause, taking in the meaning of Erza's comment before chuckling once more. "You know that's hardly a concern for someone like me."

Erza frowned tensely at Mira for several seconds, before she gave in with a sigh. "Those wizards were in Onibus," she conceded, self-disappointment evident on her face. "I have no idea whether or not they're still there, but it's also where I'd start looking for them."

Mira smiled as she looked behind her at Elfman, Lisanna, and Natsu, retaining some of her signature edge, but also seeming warmer than usual. "Looks like we're getting the band back together," she said nostalgically. "Don't worry, Erza. We'll make you proud."

**- 0 -**

After Erza finished giving Mira and the others the rest of the details she knew of, she took up the post of being in charge of the guild in Makarov's absence, the members quickly conforming to the more professional atmosphere she brought with her.

"Since we're pretty much in the dark over what Eisenwald's planning to do with Lullaby, it'd be smart to get some supplies in case we need to be gone for awhile," Mira instructed. Her siblings, Natsu and Happy surrounded her and nodded accordingly, as Lucy, Gray and Cana watched on from their table. The eldest of the Strauss family gazed over at them, and took a seat on the corner of the table, smirking as she playfully kicked her legs out. "Sorry to put you out like that, Gray, but you understand how things work with my team. No hard feelings?"

He grinned back, looking at Natsu as he replied to her. "It's all good. I should actually be thanking you, for sparing me from having to partner up with that walking disaster."

Natsu growled at him. "If anyone should be thanking her, it should be me! Ever heard of addition by subtraction? Keeping you off this mission basically means we've already won!"

"As if you _understand_ the concept of addition and subtraction!"

As the boys snarled at one another, Mira shifted towards the blonde. "You should go home and get a pack ready, too, Lucy. That is, if you wanna come with us."

It took a second for her to realize she was the one being addressed. "Me?" she asked, taken aback. "You want me to go along with you, to fight a Dark Guild?"

"You work well with Natsu and Lisanna. You're kinda like a lucky charm," Happy said, flying over to sit on Mira's lap. He made it seem as if his reasons were purely logical (if 'luck' could be considered logical), but after the talk they had earlier in the morning, she knew it was because he wanted her around.

"After what I've heard, I wanna see you in action," Mira smiled at her, in the manner that typically determined things go her way. "Don't worry, none of us will let any of those Eisenwald losers get near you. So, are you in?"

Lucy turned to Cana beside her, who gave her an encouraging nod as she sipped from her mug. "You know you want to."

Looking at the rest of Mira's team, they each backed Mira's invitation. Lisanna's sweet smile, Natsu's adventurous smirk, and even Elfman's permanent frown all extended a welcome to their task. With all that support, she felt it'd be impossible to decline.

Half an hour later, after the six had left the guild hall for their living spaces to collect their belongings, Lucy entered Magnolia Station, wheeling her small suitcase behind her. She figured to be the first person to arrive, since her apartment wasn't very far from the station, but was glad to spot one of her own already there, leaning against a terminal pillar with arms crossed.

"Hey, Elfman," she said in a friendly tone, speaking to the Strauss brother alone for the first time. She then noticed there was no bag slung on his shoulders, or resting at his feet. "Didn't you prepare anything for the trip?"

"I've already got everything I need," he replied gruffly, tightening his right hand into a fist.

"Alrighty," she said, looking down at the toes of her boots. She wasn't exactly sure what to say to the large, imposing man. It wasn't that she was intimidated beyond being able to speak to him, she just didn't know how to properly socialize with him. She pulled out a Silver Key from her ring, and summoned Plue into her arms. The white dog shivered uncontrollably as she hugged him and rested her chin on his head, thinking of how she could get some conversation going. "So, Cana said that Mira doesn't go out and take jobs like this very often. Why's that?"

Elfman stiffened even more. Even though he appeared to refuse looking at her, she could see his eyes turn cold. "It's not a story any of us like to tell."

"Oh." Lucy regretted her poor question immediately. Not that she had broken much ground with Elfman to begin with, but at least he seemed to give her the benefit of the doubt due to her fast friendship with his sister. Now, though, it looked like it would be that much harder to win the stern wizard over. She hoped it wouldn't affect their having to work together on this mission.

"But..." he suddenly intoned, snapping her from her thoughts as he turned his gaze on to her. "It's a story you'd hear eventually, and I'd rather you hear it from someone who won't sugarcoat the truth of what really happened." Lucy nodded, glad it hadn't been her that upset him, and prepared to hear him out in earnest. "It was two years ago, about a month after Mira was promoted to S-Class when she took me, Lisanna, Natsu and Happy out on an S-Class mission with her. I only wanted it to be just the three of us, but Mira insisted that they came along. To this day, I'm thankful she did, because who knows what might've happened if they hadn't been there..."

* * *

><p><em>So we're finally at the point where things are starting to get really different. Obviously, Mira taking over for Erza (no pun intended) and bringing her siblings with her, and Natsu and Lucy, to battle it out with Eisenwald being the foremost example. Next chapter, we'll see the original point of divergence between canon and my story, as you'll learn my version of what happened in the fight against The Beast.<em>

_If you're reading this fic, whether from the start or just now picking it up, you should know you rule - even more so if you drop a review to tell me how I'm doing. Every bit of motivation helps! Thanks, and stay tuned!_


	6. Lullaby Arc - Part 2

_And now we continue our story, by going back! How did Lisanna avoid being sucked into Edolas during The Beast mission? We know Natsu and Happy were there, but were they really the difference-makers? Read on to find out!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<br>- A Demon In My Safest Haven -**

_"Mira! The whole town's been evacuated!" Lisanna called from above as she glided towards them in one of her winged Take Overs. Her older sister had charged her with making sure the town beyond the quarry had been emptied out, as she and Natsu tried to restrain their enemy._

_The Beast, the twenty-foot-tall monster that had been the target of their mission, proved to be massively stronger than they had anticipated. Elfman had watched it roar in anger as it was struck by Mira's strongest attacks, only causing it to stagger momentarily. Natsu's flames were even less effective against The Beast's thick hide. As for himself, his magic wouldn't even let him get close to the behemoth. He felt 'useless' would've been too kind a description as he stood around as the others got batted into the dirt._

_Before Lisanna had returned, Mira's Take Over ended after absorbing a blow from The Beast. Her vast magic reserve had been completely depleted by the costly spell, and having to play defense against too many ferocious attacks. At that point, Elfman knew there was only one thing left he could try. As stupid and impossible as it was, it was all he could do to maybe save them all._

_When The Beast was distracted by a tiring Natsu's barrage of fireballs, Elfman made a mad dash towards the monster. He reached out with his right arm, and made contact with its leg as it bellowed in response to the flames. He shut his eyes and did his best to concentrate on Taking Over the mind of The Beast, but even mentally, he was no threat._

_Elfman's attempted Full-Body Take Over had failed miserably, and now it was his soul trapped inside The Beast's. It wasn't just the terrorizing creature anymore that they were fighting, it was their brother, as well. Mira didn't have any magic left; all she was doing was diverting its attention away from the others, and directing where they should attack from. Still, Natsu and Lisanna had no chance of winning if she wasn't battling along side them. She would've called for them all to retreat, but she couldn't leave her little brother._

_Happy pulled her away as she kept The Beast's onslaught trained on her. He zipped her around back and forth, as she would've done if she could still use her powers. With a bloodthirsty roar, it suddenly jumped towards them with more agility than it should've had at this point in the battle. They narrowly dodged its huge claw, but the gust behind the swipe knocked them to the earth. Mira heard Happy squeak in pain as she crashed on top of him. She rolled off his little frame, and picked up the barely-conscious cat as she crawled away._

_"Are you guys okay?" Natsu shouted after another fire attack, with little results._

_"We're fine!" she answered, before following up with a great "Look out!"_

_"Natsu!" Lisanna screamed as The Beast took advantage of his momentary slip in focus. It slashed at the boy, who avoided being shredded by mere inches. Regardless, the impact of its claw striking the ground sent him flying back, to hit the face of the cliff with a sick thud._

_Natsu's crumpled form groaned as he tried to pick himself up, but the fight had taken its toll on him. If only he had an external source of fire to consume, he could get back on his feet and keep going. With Mira out of power, and Lisanna incapable of such support, he could only grit his teeth and tremble on his knees and forearms as The Beast approached him, making a sinister sound. Almost like laughter._

_Ending her Take Over, Lisanna ran in between him and The Beast, her arms out to shield Natsu from its warpath. She stood her ground, even as it shook beneath her with every step the demon-like being took towards them._

_"Lisanna! What're you doing?!" Mira demanded as she cradled a stirring Happy in her arms. They were hundreds of feet away, too far to pull her from the danger._

_"Get away from him!" Natsu warned, just as desperately as Mira._

_"Big Brother Elf!" Lisanna cried up at the monster before her. "Please, you have to win against The Beast's mind! It's me, your little sister! And Mira, and Natsu and Happy are here, too! I know you've lost control, but I know you're still in there somewhere!"_

_The Beast stopped in its tracks, eyeing her as she pleaded with it. A tiny voice in the back of its head was trying to respond, but it was so distant, it might as well have been muted completely._

_"I know it's hard, but you can do it! We all believe in you! We all love you, and we can't go home without you!" Lisanna continued to reason. She tried to sound as strong as possible to get through to Elfman, but she couldn't keep her voice from wavering at the whole situation. "Big Brother Elf!"_

_The Beast studied her for another second, as if processing what she'd said. It let loose its biggest roar of the night, and lifted its colossal claw._

_"Lisanna! No!"_

_Gathering all of his remaining energy, Natsu erupted from where he kneeled. Using flames beneath his feet to propel himself faster, he made it just in time to shove Lisanna out of the The Beast's strike zone. He wasn't fast enough to make it out himself._

_The Beast's sweeping blow managed to catch him with its outermost digit, the force sending him airborne once again. He hadn't been able to brace himself against an attack, leaving him open to all the damage it could've inflicted. Natsu soared for the slowest seconds of Lisanna's life, before landing unceremoniously on the rocky ground. He bounced once, then his body lay prone, face-down._

_"Natsu!" Lisanna screamed in horror once more, hurrying over to him. She didn't care that she was giving her back to The Beast, making herself easy prey if it so chose to hammer at her as well. She needed to be at the Dragon Slayer's side._

_"Natsu...?" Happy breathed, his unswollen eye widening at the sight in disbelief. When he finally realized exactly what he'd witnessed, he began to squirm, trying to wrestle his way out of Mira's hold. "Let me go! I have to help Natsu!"_

_Mirajane didn't know anymore. She didn't know what to do. The all-too-familiar sense of hopelessness enveloped her, rendering her unable to move or think forward. She had been so proud of becoming an S-Class Wizard, that she was once again on an even playing field with Erza, but she had been arrogant to a fault, thinking she could take the most perilous job available to her. Now, because of her, her brother's mind was lost to The Beast's rage, and poor Natsu..._

_As The Beast advanced to where Lisanna cried for Natsu to stay with her, Mira tried calling out to her. Her voice failed, just like her cursed powers had failed, and how she'd failed her family and friends._

_Suddenly, a huge magic circle appeared beneath The Beast, its bright golden light keeping it from moving beyond its perimeter. It growled with quaking ferocity, but all of its clawing against the barrier was for naught._

_"Mirajane," a voice called from behind her. She turned around, and gasped at the person that was walking up to her. "You have to get Natsu to safety. If he has any time left, it isn't much. Take him and the others away. I'll deal with things here."_

_"...Mystogan?" she whispered. Happy stopped struggling at the name, as the enigmatic wizard who kept his face shrouded by a pair of bandanas made his way beside her, pointing one of his five wooden staves at The Beast. He was the one casting the magic that imprisoned its mobility. She had only recently learned of the man's identity, as he never shown himself to anyone in the guild but the master and the S-Class mages. "What're you doing here?"_

_"I was in the area," he answered cryptically. "Now, like I said, round up the others and get Natsu to help. You have to act quickly. I'll take care of that monster."_

_"That's my brother. That's Elfman," she explained in a low voice. "Please, don't hurt him."_

_Mystogan stared at her, absorbing the information. While he never associated with his guildmates, he knew of them in great detail. He was aware of how brash and unrepentant Mirajane was, so it was surreal to see her so frightened. "I'll do what I can," he said ambiguously as he marched forward._

_The white-haired girl, with Happy still in her arms, ran off for Natsu's body. Lisanna had rolled him onto his back, and clutched his hand in hers as she cried over him. Mira feared the worst in that instant, but was relieved to see his chest rise just a fraction. Happy pulled out a roll of gauze from his pack and tossed it to her, before grabbing Natsu by the scruff of his vest and flying him away._

_With his tiny body throbbing in pain, and the dead weight of his best friend's unconscious form, it was the most difficult flight Happy had ever undertaken. There wasn't even an slight breeze to help him along, but he pushed through the burning in his bones and wings, flying to where Lisanna had directed the townspeople earlier. There was sure to be a doctor among them, someone who could do more for Natsu than him or the sisters._

_Meanwhile, Mystogan released the spell on The Beast, and it immediately swiped at him in response. The physical attack harmlessly passed through his Mist Body, as he evaporated and reappeared in the air above his enemy. With a quick series of hand motions, the five staves on his back shot into the ground to encircle The Beast. They created an even more brilliant light, and it howled, not in anger or triumph, but in confusion._

_Mystogan hoped that the illusions he cast into The Beast's mind helped Elfman regain control. The Beast had only ever known being the top link in the food chain, a predator that had never feared for its life. If he understood Take Over Magic correctly, Elfman could take advantage of The Beast losing its mental grasp as it envisioned being thrust into space, and being swallowed by an even bigger, hungrier fiend. Its whole idea of the world would collapse in on itself._

_When it was dead in its own head, Mystogan ended the nightmares. He let The Beast stand limply for several seconds, waiting to see if his comrade would break free. No changes occurred, which meant that more effort was needed to reawaken Elfman._

_The staves surrounding The Beast began to spark with magic, creating another circle underneath it. A second circle appeared around its knees, and a third around its abdomen. A fourth floated at neck level, while the fifth cleared its horned head. A thin purple light then began to shine through all five circles, even through The Beast's body._

_"Sacred Song." The words, echoing through the still night, activated the tiny light. It exploded into a great beam, a pillar of Mystogan's ultimate power._

_After the attack, the titan sank to its knees before crashing face-first into the ground. Mystogan slowly walked up to the fixed mass, thinking he'd might've gone overboard. He was able to exhale calmly as the form before him started to glow, then shrunk rapidly to the muscular young man he had seen at the guild. If that heart had stopped beating, then the Take Over wouldn't have been reversed. Elfman would still need medical attention, but at least he was back to being himself._

_Mystogan looked out at the desolate town. He had closed the anima threatening to appear, and freed Elfman from The Beast. He wasn't too concerned about Natsu, either, as the boy had a warrior's spirit and will, and Happy and Lisanna would do everything they could to save him. It hadn't been an easy night for any of them, but all in all, it appeared that the worst was behind them._

**- 0 -**

Lucy hadn't realized how she was suffocating Plue as Elfman recounted the story. She relaxed her tensed arms, allowing the squeaking spirit to gratefully fill his lungs with oxygen. She rubbed his head in comfort, then turned up to Elfman, who had avoided eye contact for most of the tale.

"Wow," was all she could say as she sorted out her thoughts.

Elfman grunted in response. "My sisters will try to feed you a version where I was just another victim, but I knew what I was risking when I tried Taking Over The Beast. No one would've been a near-casualty if it hadn't been for my idiocy. Whether they won't admit it or they really don't see it is irrelevant; a real man will own up to his actions, and that's why I told you. Just don't make it obvious to them that you already know all that."

Lucy nodded. He didn't want her to fear him, or pity him, and she did neither. He just wanted her to understand, and that she did.

She now understood just how deep the relationship between Natsu and Lisanna ran, as both were willing to sacrifice themselves for the other's sake without hesitation. She understood why Elfman didn't seem opposed to the Dragon Slayer being so close to his little sister, when he would pummel any other boy if they dared approach her, as he knew how much they cared for each other after what he'd inadvertently put them through that night.

And she understood why Mirajane, once a proud and infamous S-Class Wizard, favored modeling work to avoid using her Take Over Magic. It had let her down in the most crucial moment of her life, and it would've cost her dearly if it hadn't been for Mystogan's timely intervention. The way she suppressed the beautiful, gentle smile Lucy had glimpsed indicated she shouldered the burden for that event two years ago, as well.

"Big Brother Elf! Lucy!" Lisanna called as she and Mira walked into the station. The two carried with them packs, with Mira's looking far more stuffed than her youngest sibling's. "Natsu and Happy haven't made it yet?" she asked as they reached the terminal.

"Not yet," Lucy replied as she let her take Plue for a moment. "How far away do they live from here?"

"They're closer to the station than we are at Fairy Hills," Mira answered, grinning. "Natsu's probably just stalling until the last second. Just being around all these vehicles can get to him, so he'll want to spend as little time as possible surrounded by them before having to board our train."

When it was announced over the intercom that the Onibus Train would be departing in five minutes, Mira lead them inside, picking out their spots in the third cart, near the back. As the whistle began to blow in preparation, a queasy Natsu dropped into the seats across the walkway, Happy cheerfully settling in Lisanna's lap to interact with Plue on Lucy's.

"Glad you made it," Mira commented as the train's machinations began to put it in motion.

"Can't say the same," he muttered through bloated cheeks.

"It's just a short trip," Happy reminded him, Plue nodding along. "We'll get there in no time. Then, we'll have a whole Dark Guild to beat up on!"

Natsu looked comforted, if only slightly, by the vision of standing against waves of enemies rushing at him. Lucy, on the other hand, was reminded that there were only six Fairy Tail wizards to oppose them, and wondered what she had gotten herself into.

"So Mira," she began to distract from herself from thought, as their train exited Magnolia's boundaries, bulleting into the vast green fields, "just how many S-Class Wizards does Fairy Tail have? There's you and Erza..."

Mira smiled as she held up an open hand. "There's five of us total. Me, Erza, Laxus, Mystogan, and the old guy."

The name 'Laxus' rang familiar to Lucy. More than likely, she'd read about him in Sorcerer Weekly, but she couldn't recall anything other than that he was very powerful. Mystogan was the one Lucy had been fishing for, however. If he had been able to single-handedly defeat The Beast when the team around her combined to fail, he was sure to be one of the strongest mages in the guild.

"Laxus is Master Makarov's grandson," Elfman explained. "With his pedigree, there was no doubt he would grow up to be a man worthy of S-Class rank."

"As for Mystogan," Mira said, her eyes discreetly softening as she spoke his name, "the Master didn't think anyone gave a true S-Class performance at this year's trials a few months back, so being last year's winner, Mystogan is the latest wizard to earn that title."

Lucy remembered the article in her favorite magazine, stating that no one had achieved S-Class in Fairy Tail this year. "Does that happen a lot? No one getting promoted, I mean."

"It's not as uncommon as you might think," Lisanna replied. "It's a really difficult test, so it won't always narrow down to the last person. Even if it does, the Master still has the final say, and he might not approve you as S-Class, like what happened this year. He looks for more than just pure strength in those that he'll elevate to be known as the best of the best."

"Otherwise, there are a bunch of other wizards in the guild that could be called S-Class on magical power alone," Happy continued, "like Macao, who was a contender in his prime, and Cana, who lost in the final round this year against one of Laxus's buddies, Freed. He was the one that didn't get promoted."

"On account of not being a real man," Elfman supplied, frowning as he stared out the window.

"And 'the old guy'...?" Lucy inquired.

"Gildarts..." Natsu joined the conversation. He had taken up both seats to lay on his side, his head on the outermost end. Despite his motion sickness, he actually sounded excited at having brought the name up. "He's the strongest of all..."

"I've never heard of him," Lucy said, putting a finger to her chin. Why wasn't the most powerful mage of the most renowned guild in the land a complete superstar to the press?

"Gildarts has only shown up at the guild a few times since we joined," Lisanna answered with a reminiscent smile, seemingly just as fond of the man as Natsu. "He likes to take the extremely dangerous SS-Class jobs, which are deemed nearly impossible because they've been posted for years, and some would _take_ years to realistically finish. Thanks to that, he's sort of developed a routine where he'll be away on a quest for a long time, come back and enjoy himself for a few days, and then leave again."

"That's incredible," Lucy said in awe of Gildarts' legacy. She couldn't even imagine how powerful someone like that could be.

As they approached Onibus, the team began to discuss how they were going to go about stopping Eisenwald. Erza had told them that one of men she'd encountered at the local bar, Kageyama if she'd heard right, would be returning Lullaby to Erigor in three days' time. That left them just that day to uncover what their goal was, and put an end to their scheme.

The first step of the plan they had devised on the train would see Natsu and Elfman enter the bar the Eisenwald mages had been hanging out at. "When a guild has its legality revoked by the Magic Council, they order the halls to be vacated," Mira had explained. "That generally doesn't stop its members from using it as a base of operations, but no vendor would be caught dead selling to them. That means they have to come to pubs like this to get their fill of alcohol, and since this one is so popular with traveling wizards, it'd be pretty easy for nondescript Dark Guild wizards to blend in. We're sure to run into someone here who'd be of use to us."

The boys went in after Natsu got over his illness, while Happy and the girls waited across the street, watching for a signal as they played the roles of shoppers checking the outside vendors. Not two minutes after walking in through the doors, they followed a group of three men right out, as discreetly as Fairy Tail members could manage.

"How could they not have my favorite drink?!" Elfman bellowed as an excuse for their immediate departure, raising his fists over his head.

"Those jerks!" Natsu yelled with him, spouting flames from his mouth. The trio of men they were tailing briefly turned around to acknowledge the loud, overdramatic pair, but otherwise went about their own business.

The boys crossed the street and rejoined the others, keeping an eye on their targets as they walked down the block. "One of those guys mentioned Lullaby and got elbowed to keep his mouth shut," Elfman reported. "They have to be from Eisenwald."

"They should heading back to their guild hall, right?" Lucy asked. Mira had said that assassination guilds, before having been outlawed, kept the locations of their halls a secret from the public. Only members and the Magic Council were privy to that information, so anyone with a killing request had to float it along at seedy taverns before being contacted by the guild. "If we follow them, they might lead us straight there."

"I'm on it," Lisanna said with a smile. Lucy noticed the others forming a tight circle around her to shield her from view, and stepped in to cover her side as she activated her Cat Take Over. Unlike the anthropomorphic form of Happy, Lisanna became a normal blue-furred cat with black stripes. She slipped through the gap in Lucy's legs, and ran to the corner the men had turned before slowing into the casual slink of a stray.

"So am I allowed to talk about Kage _now_, Rayule?" the tallest of the bunch, with dark hair and whiskers on his face, asked irritably as Lisanna caught up to them, staying one step behind and to the left of the group.

"As long as you don't go tellin' the whole world like those two idiots back there, you can say whatever you want, Byard," Rayule, a man wearing a yellow and black hood answered, just as peeved.

"You know as well as I do that Kage's finished unsealing Lullaby by now," Byard complained in a low voice, taking the hint. "I don't care how forbidden that magic's supposed to be, it doesn't take three days for a dispeller of Kage's skill to get it done. He's just using that as an excuse to take some time to slack off in a nice city."

"Well, we _are_ gonna be pretty busy once we get the plan underway," the third man, short and ball-shaped, said nervously with a shrug. "It'd be nice to relax for a little bit before we start killing people with that freaky flute."

"Karacka! Shut it!" Rayule said, turning to glare at his partner, who wilted even more. He sighed at his fellow guild members' tendency to say inappropriate things aloud before replying. "It doesn't matter what Kageyama's doing down in Magnolia. As long as he returns Lullaby with its seal broken tomorrow like he promised, Erigor can proceed as planned. We'll stage the assault on the train station, leaving him free and clear to get to Clover undetected. After that, we'll have turned the entire magical world on its head."

Lisanna purred in intrigue at what he meant, but she wasn't allowed to stay with the trio any longer, as the wizard named Byard took notice of her. "I hate cats! Get outta here!" he snarled, kicking at the feline.

She sprang back to avoid his boot, countering with her claws to leave three bloody marks on his shin. He cried out in pain as she hissed angrily in response, then darted away to return to her friends. She found them hidden in an alley, anticipating to hear what she'd learned from them.

"They're gonna attack the train station tomorrow," she said before resuming her human form. "The way the guy said it, he made it sound like it could be a diversion for Erigor, because he's supposed to be heading for Clover."

"Clover?" Mira repeated, frowning. "That's where the Guild Masters hold their meetings."

"And Gramps and the others are in one right now," Natsu growled.

"You don't think... _they're_ the targets?" Lucy asked with unease.

"If they wanted to make a statement, going after the Guild Masters is sure to get attention," Elfman surmised.

"One of them let slip that Lullaby was a killing flute," Lisanna added gravely. "Magic like that, it makes sense an assassination guild would want it."

"I'm gonna keep an eye on them," Happy said, sprouting his wings. "We can't let these guys get away. I'll follow them and let you know where it is they're going. Maybe their guild's somewhere outside of town."

"Go for it, little buddy," Natsu commended with a smirk and a thumbs-up. "We're not gonna let these punks get to tomorrow, 'cause we're stopping 'em today."

**- 0 -**

As it turned out, the Eisenwald wizards were heading towards the train station. Happy at first was afraid of what they might be doing, but it seemed that they were simply waiting to board a train. He flew back to the team with the news, who quickly set out to make that same ride. Natsu lost some of the fire in his belly as they barely managed to climb into the last cart in the line before departing.

"Lullaby... a killing flute..." Lucy had been mulling the information over since Lisanna mentioned it. "I read a book once where the antagonist who was trying to take over the world, had a wooden flute as his weapon, with a three-eyed skull for a head that put anyone that heard its song into an eternal sleep. It was supposed to have been carved by the Black Wizard Zeref, but I thought the writer was just using that for flair. It might be a lot truer than anyone would've thought, though."

"That must be what they're up to, then," Mira said, her eyes low. "Erigor will take Lullaby to the Guild Masters and kill them all, without them ever having suspected a thing. Doing so would send the whole kingdom into total chaos."

"Your book had a happy ending, right, Lucy?" Happy asked from her lap. Since Lisanna, incognito with Transformation Magic, had moved up to the same cart as the Eisenwald members to keep tabs on them, he decided to share a seat with her.

"Well, yeah. Bad guys don't usually win in books," she replied. "If we stop Erigor now, do you think this Kageyama guy will try to finish the job on his own? We're taking a risk here in leaving him out there in possession of Lullaby."

"Erigor is the ace of Eisenwald," Mira answered. "Keeping Lullaby out of his hands is our biggest concern. If Kageyama is down in Magnolia, he wouldn't know that we trashed his guild unless someone with a powerful sort of communications magic gave him a heads-up. Once we're in Oshibana, I'll get us a lacrima and fill Erza in with the details. She'll make sure that we won't have to worry about him."

A few minutes later, the train made a stop at the supplies port of Kunugi Station. When Lisanna didn't reappear to let them know they'd arrived at their destination, they stayed put. It wasn't until the next stop at Oshibana that the disguised mage poked her head into their cart. "They're on the move," she informed them, sporting strawberry locks that extended down the middle of her back, wearing a schoolgirl uniform of a yellow vest and red plaid skirt.

"You've gotten really good at Transformation Magic," Elfman commended. He was envious of his little sister's natural talent, yes, but he was also proud of how much she'd grown since their ill-fated S-Class quest. Training with Mira on how to morph more than just animals, and raising her strength alongside Natsu, had done wonders for her. Seeing how hard she'd worked had broken him from his slump after that night, and inspired him to become a man they could be proud of, too.

Allowing a modest distance to avoid suspicion, the Fairy Tail wizards kept them in their sights until they crossed into a residential district. Without a crowd to mingle in, the team once again had to rely on Happy to document their tracks from the sky. This gave Mira the opportunity to purchase a communications lacrima to speak with Erza back at the guild, taking it back to the central square.

"Kageyama... I'll find him," the armored woman said dutifully. "I'll search the entire city if I have to, but he won't be escaping Magnolia with that cursed flute."

Natsu nodded as he edged Mira out of the picture on her end of the orb. "Be careful, Erza. We don't know exactly how Lullaby works, but you better not give him the chance to play a single note, got it? I still need that rematch, remember?"

The serious expression on Erza's face softened, contrary to the ones on Lisanna' and Elfman's, which grew even terser. "Even if I am a little worn out, I believe I can handle this one wizard. If you defeat Eisenwald, then I'll give you that rematch, rest assured."

"Natsu wants to fight Erza?!" Lucy asked, stupefied. Had the boy lost his mind? Earlier he had displayed the good sense to be fearful of Erza's power, but now he was challenging her?

"Only a real man would have the guts to face off against the strongest woman in Fairy Tail," Elfman said, crossing his arms in approval.

"Or a real idiot," Lisanna sighed, but smiled regardless.

Lucy listened to Natsu hype himself up about how it was his time to beat Erza after having his butt kicked for years, while Mira recorded a letter to send to the Guild Masters in Clover. It had been close to half an hour since Happy's departure, and Lucy could see in Lisanna's eyes that she was beginning to worry about the flying cat. Her concern began to grow as well, but the Dragon Slayer appeared to have no shortage of confidence in his best friend, remaining wired about their upcoming confrontation.

"You guys!" a squeaky voice called from above. Happy eased into a hover before his wings disappeared, dropping onto Natsu's hair. "I know where Eisenwald's guild hall is!"

The team lauded his efforts, and had him point the way there. He explained that wizards had traveled outside of Oshibana Town, entering the neighboring woods. Unlike the verdant forest by Magnolia, the trees he lead them through were decayed and gaunt, their leafless branches eerily reaching out to spread their misery. Even the sky seemed to lose its luster, as Lucy didn't remember it being so heavily clouded before they'd started their march.

"You're sure this is the right way?" she asked, a little more than creeped out at her surroundings. She could swear something had been peeking out at her through a shadowy hole in a tree.

"Of course," Happy replied happily. "A cat's sense of direction is never wrong."

Lucy didn't put full faith in that statement, but on this occasion, Happy couldn't be proved wrong. They walked for a little over fifteen minutes before they reached a worn path leading to a gray brick building, which he confirmed as the Eisenwald guild hall. With a jubilant war cry, Natsu began a charge for the rest of the way, but didn't make it three steps in front of him. Lisanna had snatched at the boy's scale-patterned scarf, easily holding him in place with one hand as he struggled against her grip.

"Now, now, Natsu," she said sweetly. "I think it'd be best if we all went in together as a team. Does that sound okay to you?"

Natsu ceased fighting and turned to face her, as she let go of his scarf. Mira was giving him the infamous smirk that had made blood run cold before her modeling days, and Elfman made him the subject of the stony gaze that petrified those that stood against him. However, he noticed neither of the older Strauss siblings, as he was wholly absorbed in Lisanna's smile. It was all the incentive he needed.

"Yeah, alright," he conceded.

Lisanna looked to her family and Happy with a grin, who nodded in agreement. The four turned to Lucy, as the white-haired girls winked at her to play along. They all began to rush forward past Natsu, who was quick on the uptake. It wasn't long before he made it to the head of the pack, directing them straight to Eisenwald's doors.

**- 0 -**

"In less than twenty-four hours, this kingdom will come to understand," the tattooed man at the center of the room declared to the crowd amassing around him. His silver hair swayed as he turned about, so all could see his proud smirk. He lifted the scythe in his right arm, and swung it down to almost cleave one of his own men. "We will make this kingdom understand loss!"

"That's right, Erigor!" the guild of thirty or so men hollered in admiration.

"We had our livelihoods stripped away from us! We were branded outlaws because of the way we'd chosen to support ourselves! We were barred from walking down streets as free men, and so now, we will litter those same streets with the ignorant that made it happen!" Erigor continued. "The Guild Masters that opposed our work will drop like flies when they hear Lullaby's grim melody!"

He paused to let the crowd cheer, raucously throwing up their arms.

"Following them will be the people who thought they no longer had to fear assassination guilds! They were so relieved for themselves, that they forgot what it meant for us! The same rights they enjoy and celebrate exclude us, making us unequal in the eyes of the world!" Erigor growled furiously, before cracking a grin. "But those people will be the cobblestones on the trail we pave, as we play our way to the Magic Council! The nine who unanimously decreed us as scum will be the last to understand! Their hubris won't allow them to fathom our message, until we are before their very eyes! Then, and only then, will they finally realize, as those same eyes that looked down on us slowly close for the very last time, that no corpse stands taller than the rest!"

The Eisenwald members' ovation continued, loving the picture Erigor had painted in their minds. At that moment, they began to feel invincible, and the time of action was still a day away.

When the noise began to die down, a slow clap was made audible. The men quieted even faster, locating the source of the clapping at the front of the hall. A group of five, three females and two males, along with a blue cat, stood at the entrance. The woman in the middle was the one with the mocking show of support, her face displaying amusement at what the group had overheard.

"So that's your big plan?" she said condescendingly, beginning to walk forward. The others began to move up as well, but kept her at the forefront. "It's rather simple, don't you think? Well, there's a chance it might've worked if Lullaby's as powerful as you believe it is, but I guess you'll never know."

"And just who do you think are, entering the hall of Eisenwald?" Erigor asked as his circle parted, allowing him to get closer and see the intruders face to face.

Mira snickered, angling her body to display the white guild mark on the side of her left thigh. "The ones that're gonna stop you, obviously. Your guildmates really should be a little more careful about what they say; you never know who might be listening in."

Erigor leered at the symbol, then began to cackle, filling the grand room with a slight echo of hostility. "Five flies from Fairy Tail," he spat, slamming the butt of his scythe into the floor. "Tell me, do you really expect that such a pitiful number would be able to storm into my guild and take us down?"

Now it was Natsu that stepped ahead of Mirajane. "If you've heard of our guild, then you've probably heard of the damage we can cause on accident," he said, his smirk becoming almost too big for his face. "Now what do you think we're capable of when we actually put our minds to it?"

The whiskered Eisenwald mage shrugged through the crowd and stood beside his leader. "Don't you know exactly what we specialize in?" Byard demanded.

Another of Erigor's cronies walked up, wriggling his black-banded fingers. "We _kill_ for a living. Five of you against thirty of us? You just walked into a slaughterhouse," Rayule grinned smugly.

Elfman threw off his jacket, leaving his muscular arms bare in a sleeveless shirt. "A real man likes those numbers," his deep voice boomed as he balled his right hand. "The more there are of you, the more bones there are for me to break."

Erigor laughed once again, his body suddenly lifting weightlessly into the air. Suspended in place, he crisscrossed his legs as if sitting, laying his scythe across his lap as he sneered down at the team.

"How's he doing that?" Lucy asked, jarred by the magic. She had never seen anyone completely resist gravity like that, without any sort of apparent assistance.

"Wind Magic," Happy answered. It was barely noticeable, but he could feel a breeze tickling through his fur. That, and he'd also overheard the wizards he'd tracked speak of the man's powers. "He's manipulating the air around him to fly."

"You all sound pretty bloodthirsty for a bunch of legal-guild fairies," The Reaper observed. "If you're so inclined, then try to fight us and die!"

His body vanished as wind swept over him, leaving only his guildmates to ominously encroach on the Fairy Tail wizards' position. Lucy instinctively sent a hand down to her key ring, wondering if they really would make it out of this situation. Even with her as the weakest link, they were still a very powerful assembly, but this was an entire faction of assassins they were facing.

"Elfman, Natsu, Lisanna," Mira instructed, "I want you to go after Erigor. Find wherever he's decided to hide and take him out. Lucy and I, we're enough to handle the rest here."

"What?!" the blonde cried out. The rest of her friends didn't seem to calculate the unfavorable odds Mira had just set for them, as they nodded accordingly.

"You got it," Natsu smiled, revving his engines (figuratively; he couldn't afford to get motion-sick right now).

The two Eisenwald members that had spoken up with Erigor suddenly made it to the second floor before Natsu and the others could begin their search. Byard used twin light beams from his fists striking the ground to launch himself up, while the bands around Rayule's fingers snapped to the rafters like vines to swing him to the railing.

"It wouldn't be very fun if you were beaten before I could get my shots in," Byard said. "If any of you wanna go at it one-on-one, why don't you follow me?"

"I'll invite you to the same," Rayule smirked, retracting his bands. "It's been a long time since I've gotten the chance to take out a wizard from a legal guild."

"You guys can have these two," Natsu addressed Lisanna and Elfman, embers flickering around his mouth. "I want Erigor."

Lisanna's lips curved into a smirk, resembling the one her sister often gave. She recalled how Byard had tried to punt her when she was walking alongside them as a cat. "Sounds good to me," she said, her selection clear as she began to walk up the left staircase where the whiskered man disappeared into a room at the end of the hallway.

Elfman cracked his knuckles, his frow burrowed as he ascended the right stairway. "I've never gotten the chance to take out a wizard from a Dark Guild," he said, locking gazes with Rayule as he too entered a separate chamber. "Only a real man gets to make the most of this opportunity. Which one of us is it gonna be?"

Happy activated his Aera Magic, and grabbed Natsu by the scruff of his vest. They took off over the heads of the Eisenwald members, past the second floor, and shattered the circular window at the top of the far wall at Natsu's direction. He must've said something once outside, because an agreeable "Aye!" was heard all the way back inside.

Now Lucy was left with Mira, staring into a sea of hungry, violent eyes as the tide flowed in. She wanted to shrink back in nervousness, but was given a pure, supportive smile from the woman beside her. The idol, live off the pages of her favorite magazine, instilled in her courage, and Lucy knew she couldn't disappoint. There was many lives depending on their victory, including Master Makarov's and their own. It was time to go all in.

* * *

><p><em>So I hope you guys enjoyed my rendition of The Beast fight. If you were expecting Mystogan as the Big Damn Heroes, I'll give you begrudging props for figuring it out. Bonus points if you got Lisanna's Transformation Magic shout-out. In any case, we've set the card up, so look forward to the Fairy Tail vs. Eisenwald clash next chapter. If action scenes are your thing, join us next time for nothing but hard-hitting battles!<em>

_Thanks for reading, guys, and reviewing as well if you're so inclined._


	7. Lullaby Arc - Part 3

_The moment you guys have all been waiting for is finally here: Fairy Tail vs. Eisenwald! No holds barred and winner take all, so be sure to cheer your hearts out for the good guys! Read on and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7<br>- You Say That You're A Dreamer, Well I'm A Dreamer Too -**

"You know, it's a shame that such attractive young ladies had to be the ones to try and stop us," Byard said, shaking his head as he examined his opponent from top to bottom with a lascivious grin. "A real shame."

Lisanna only smiled. "Don't tell me you're gonna be holding back just because I'm a girl. I wanna see your fighting spirit."

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," he quipped, raising his eyebrows.

She could've either made a disgusted face or expand her smirk, and Lisanna opted for the latter. When she began to glow and took on her blue cat form that had left the crimson scratches on the front of his leg, it made his expression all the more fulfilling. At first it was wide-eyed shock as he recognized the striped feline, then anger as the implications dawned on him.

"Or maybe something like _this_ is more to your liking?" she asked, before glowing once more. She grew to her normal human size, but was left garbed in a two-piece blue bikini-style outfit with the same black stripes. Triangular ears popped from her head, as her hands and feet sprouted blue and black fur around her sharp paws. A long, thin tail lightly waved behind her, and a collared bell completed her Partial Cat Soul.

It was her favorite Take Over for battle. While it wasn't as fast as the top speed of her Squirrel Soul, or as immensely strong as her Grizzly Soul, it balanced the two stats to truly maximize her fighting prowess. The cute catgirl appeal was also a lucky bonus.

"You must think you're real clever," Byard gritted his teeth. Spheres of light enveloped both of his clenched fists, which he put together and aimed at Lisanna. With a cry, he fired a pale beam at her, but it missed its mark completely.

Lisanna effortlessly dodged the attack with her superior reflexes, and was within striking distance of Byard after three spring-loaded bounds. She punished him with a strong knee to the gut, knocking the wind out of him. He collapsed to the floor and wheezed for air as he held his midsection, Lisanna moving back to give him space. Even though he couldn't speak the words, the fury in his eyes said he wasn't through yet.

"What good is that stupid cat speed gonna do you..." he began as he climbed to his feet. His joined hands again created another magical sphere. All of the light in the room began to dim around the orb, until it too disappeared, leaving nothing left for his opponent to see but the unnatural pitch black. "...When you can't even find me?!" he finished in the dark.

Lisanna wasn't sure if Byard was able to see through his spell himself. She hoped he could, as she wanted him to know she was still smiling.

"Beam Spam!" he shouted, unleashing his magic. A flurry of the same pale beams, which offered extremely little illumination against the darkness, suddenly began to bounce around the room. They randomly changed direction upon hitting the walls, meant to leave the target in fear of their unpredictable patterns until it was too late to dodge, striking in rapid procession.

"That's a pretty cool move," Lisanna said from behind him, a smirk in her voice.

Byard froze up. "No way..." he choked out, unable to turn around. He'd been positive that she would've been taken out by at least one of his beams.

"Did you really think it would work, though?" she continued edgily. "I'd already shown you I was faster than your magic, so I just needed a safe place to move to - and what would be better than at your back? I guess you must not know anything about a cat's senses, either; they're nocturnal, so even those dull beams were enough light to let me find your position. Their smelling and hearing are even better than their sight in the dark, by the way, which all adds up to you never having a chance."

The room returned to its normal brightness as Byard whisked around with a light-enhanced right hook. Lisanna ducked under the undisciplined punch, and swiftly countered with a brutal spinning heel kick to the jaw. Like Erigor, he went flying through the air, but not of his own intent. If he hadn't been out cold from the blow already, the impact of him crashing thrugh the wall was sure to have done it.

"If there's anything you should take from this, it's that you shouldn't kick at cats," Lisanna smiled victoriously as spoke to him, even if he wasn't able to listen. "They might just kick you back."

**- 0 -**

Elfman charged at Rayule with his bare fists, but he used the bands in the same way as before to avoid the attack. He wrapped them around the exposed rafters on the ceiling to sling himself out of the way, then held himself suspended in that position to mock his opponent.

"I thought this was supposed to be a battle between wizards?" he asked arrogantly. "If you're not gonna use your magic, then you're wasting my time."

With his free hand, Rayule shot his cables at Elfman. He shielded himself with his left arm out, allowing it to be the only part of his body to be constricted. The pressure they applied was great, and the sharp edges began to dig into his skin, so he quickly activated his powers to free himself.

"Savage Arm!" he cried as his right limb began to glow from his shoulder down. "Black Bull!" His arm revealed to be prominently more muscular than before, and his skin had turned into a black leathery hide. He grabbed the cables around his still-human arm, severing them with a single pull. The shreds fell at his feet as he scowled at Rayule, stomping on them as he advanced towards his enemy.

"Is that some kind of Take Over? Why use it on just your arm?" he sneered, dropping back to the floor as his bands expanded once more. They remained parallel to his body, but swayed slightly as they reached up to his shoulders.

Elfman bore his teeth at the question. "It's all I need to beat you!" He lunged forward with his black fist reared back, and struck the ground where Rayule had been standing just an instant before.

The hooded wizard had leaped to the side, targeting Elfman's altered arm. "That's still flesh, and I can tear it just like you tore my Urumi!" He whipped all eight of his cables blade-first at him, aiming to draw blood. A sick grin passed over his face as he wondered if that monstrous arm would still bleed red.

"Iron Bull!" Eflman's right arm underwent another Take Over at his command. The Urumi ricocheted off the metallic plates now covering it, without leaving any scratches.

"That ability of yours is beginning to annoy me," Rayule said, actually looking enthralled at how he was being countered. "I'll just gonna have to render your whole body useless!" His Urumi snaked at the man from the legal guild, coiling around him from his broad shoulders to his knees. His limbs were pinned under their crushing weight, but one band was kept off of his body, freely wriggling near his neck area. It suddenly stilled, flattening out like a sword. "You seem like the kind that doesn't use his head much. Maybe you don't really need it at all?"

Instead of seeming scared or pleading for his life, Elfman smirked. "A real man uses his instincts first in battle," he began, light shining on his right side through the tiny slips between the Urumi, "but he also knows to make use of his brain when his opponent keeps revealing what he's gonna do!" Fire then replaced the glow, erupting to burn away the bonds that held him in place.

"What the...?" Rayule whispered, making the face he'd wanted to see on Elfman. His magical arm was enveloped in flames, reddish-pink scales visible through the blaze. His reptilian hand was now tipped with prominent claws, which were being pointed at him menacingly.

"Savage Arm - Salamandra," Elfman said, pyro bursting as he announced the transformation. It was another thing he owed Natsu for, as he'd gladly helped him track down and beat the monster to acquire it, resulting in his one spell that had added elemental properties.

His claw roared as it burned through the air, catching the stunned Rayule dead center in the chest. Sparks showered from the immense blow, knocking him through the brick wall behind him. It hadn't been a fatal strike, but Elfman was sure he would be days away from being able to stand up from his prison infirmary cot. He could only hope his teammates wouldn't leave anyone else in worse condition, but as history had proved, that was wishful thinking at its utmost.

**- 0 -**

"Alright, Lucy," Mira said, smirking as she sized up the opposition of thirty-strong. "Now show me what you can do."

Lucy had expected to take the field first. Mira had told her that she wanted to see what she was capable of before leaving the guild, something even she wasn't completely sure of. Defeating Everlue had been a strategy in which she hit all the right notes, but this was a battle of a different nature entirely. It helped settle her nerves to know she had an S-Class Wizard to back her up in case things got rocky.

"Open, Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" Lucy summoned forth her newest spirit, who drilled up from beneath the ground. She continued to spin until landing on the ground, bowing obediently as the Eisenwald men stopped to watch the latest cute girl to join the picture.

"What is your desire, Princess?" she asked, daintily holding her hands together as she awaited orders.

Lucy chose not to respond to the raised eyebrow and grin Mira gave her at hearing the title. "I need you to take these guys out!" she commanded, not allowing her slight blush to affect her tone.

"As you wish." Virgo launched herself into the crowd, whirling about like a top possessed. She thrashed them with her celestial strength, then extended the chains from her wrist shackles to widen her striking range. The men that had been tightly packed together dispersed, spreading themselves out to avoid being hit, screaming at each other to move and trampling over the bodies of their own guildmates in the process.

The sight angered Lucy. There was no compassion within these Dark Wizards, only a selfish sense of self-preservation. She wanted to shout encouragement to Virgo, but her words were cut off as the men went on the offensive. They fired magical energy towards her from a distance, but Virgo submerged herself into the ground, leaving the beams to instead connect with other members of the mob. Lucy heard no apologies, only admonishing at the injured for not getting out of the way.

Virgo burst from the floor at the center of another group of idle wizards, sending more bodies flying with the move. Ending her spinning, she raised her arms, commanding the earth beneath their feet to rise around her, the slabs striking suddenly at her nearest foes. She caught Lucy's admiring eyes from across the room, but was confused when they turned into a look of horror.

"Look out!" Lucy cried, holding up her key to forcefully dismiss the maid back to her world. A rotund man with spiky green hair had magically phased from through the ceiling, intending to get the drop on her spirit with a dagger in his stubby hand. Lucy had spotted him just a few feet from Virgo's head and falling fast, leaving her just milliseconds to react. Somehow, thankfully, she'd been able to spare Virgo by closing her gate without her consent, an ability she didn't know was possible.

"Don't breathe easy just yet," Mira advised, their remaining enemies beginning to close in on them again now that they didn't have to worry about the maid. "We still have baddies on their feet."

"There's still more than enough of us left to get rid of you!" one man yelled out, cheers of agreement going up at the declaration.

"No, wait..." the fat wizard that had tried to sneak up on Lucy's spirit said fearfully. "I recognize that woman! That's Mirajane!"

"Yeah, you're right, Karacka! That's the bikini girl!" Murmurs of agreement went around, and even a few whistles were directed towards Mira as she crossed her arms and slowly stepped closer. Lucy might've tried to stop her, but she had a feeling she knew what she was doing.

"Stop right there!" Karacka bemoaned, no authority in his trembling voice. "Don't you idiots read the columns, too? She's not just a model, she's an S-Class Wizard! The She-Devil!"

The forgotten nickname immediately registered in Lucy's mind. She remembered Mira being referred to as such when she first began appearing in Sorcerer Weekly, thanks to her signature Take Over style, Demon Soul. When her swimsuit spreads became their hottest attraction, however, the publishers phased the moniker into obscurity.

"It's been a long time since I've been called that. I never liked it much," Mira chuckled with her head low, her white bangs shadowing her eyes. "Satan Soul."

The ground under their feet began to rumble, and the bits of cement that had been dug up by Virgo began to float as Mira activated the power she so rarely used. Her hair billowed upwards as the shaking became more violent, almost bringing a few men and Lucy to their knees. A massive pillar of violet light surrounded her, warping her heavenly figure into a demonic embodiment.

Her ears had grown long and pointy, and her face contorted into an expression of evil glee, but those were the least frightening changes. A long, thick tail swept behind her, while her hands had grown into claws reminiscent of talons. Lucy watched in awe as hellish leathery wings sprouted from her back, allowing Mira to leap into the air and circle the remaining Eisenwald members. She rounded them up with a legion laugh, nothing like the musical sound the blonde had heard from her before.

Shivering just as much as their enemies at Mira's Take Over, Lucy had to remind herself that she was on her side. Mira stopped her movements, smirking as she raised her right hand, pointing downward at the men who had lost all nerve. "Darkness Stream!" she shouted, her voice deep and twisted. Multiple beams of pure black shot outwards and closed as they closed towards the clumped group, the ends reaching out like claws just before blasting into them.

After the dust cleared, Lucy saw the last of the opposing forces slumped at the bottom of a deep crater. "Are they...?"

"They're still alive," Mira assured her, walking to her back in her normal form. Lucy was relieved, and admittedly, a part of that was due to the cancellation of her Take Over. "I know it's funny to think after what you just saw, but killing isn't in my nature."

Lucy tore away from the collection of bodies, but then realized that one distinguishable heavyset frame hadn't been in among the pile. She looked at Mira with the intention of warning her, but the S-Class Wizard had already caught on, holding a finger to her smiling lips. They waited silently for over a minute, until finally Karacka poked his head out of the left wall, looking distraught.

"What did that witch do to you guys?" he whispered as he surveyed the damage. He suddenly felt a strangling hold around his neck, and a hearty tug that pulled him from his hiding place.

"Something a lot worse than what you're gonna get," Mira smirked from his right side, as Lucy kept him reigned in with her whip on his left. "I imagine it'll still be painful, though."

Karacka looked up at the white-haired woman with begging eyes, ignoring the blonde behind him. At the last second did he understand the nod Mira gave past him, right before a sharp pain at the back of his head overtook his consciousness.

"Lucy, I can just tell it's gonna be fun having you around."

"Thank you," she replied earnestly, beaming with a modest rose tint on her cheeks.

**- 0 -**

The black-haired man in the white jacket, with his hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, spotted the pub across the canal bridge. Anytime he was in Magnolia, he made sure to stop by the location for a drink. It might not have been the most popular bar in town, but he enjoyed this particular site because of the clientele. Most of the regulars were blue-collar workers who didn't babble on about how amazing their local guild was. He didn't have any issues with the Onibus bar he and the others frequented, but it did get irritating at times when the other visiting wizards never shut up about all the legal work they did.

He noticed a gorgeous redhead leaning against the arched bridge's railing near the other side with crossed arms. As he approached her, he took a liking to her blue skirt and boots, but wondered what the deal was with the armor she had over her torso. Was it some new fashion trend? Just the other day, he remembered seeing another woman in armor at the Onibus tavern.

A though occured to him, causing a slight hitch in his step. Didn't that woman also have red hair? It was hard to be sure, thanks to the building's lighting and the buzz he had at the time... He shrugged it off as a coincidence, figuring it was nothing to worry over.

"Excuse me," the woman said as he came within a foot of her. She turned to him with a stern gaze, moving in front of him to block his path. "Are you Kageyama?"

He froze for a second, then frowned at her with disdain. "Who wants to know?" he asked crudely. Her position kept him from seeing all of the whole, but he could make out bits of a guild emblem on her left arm. In Magnolia, that meant there was only one guild she could belong to.

"I'm Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail," she announced. "And you're Kageyama of Eisenwald, aren't you?"

Still glowering, he spoke cautiously. "What is it that you want?"

"Two days ago in Onibus I overheard you and a group of wizards talking about unsealing a spell named Lullaby," she replied, her eyes piercing into his. "When I put everything you said together, I returned to my guild with the intention of stopping your evil plan. A team of some of Fairy Tail's strongest members set out in my stead, and as we speak, they are launching an attack on your headquarters."

Kageyama stiffened at the words momentarily, before his face broke out into a smirk. "I hope you said your goodbyes, then, 'cause that group's never coming home," he said wickedly, taking a few steps back.

Erza watched his movements carefully as he slipped his hands out of his pockets. He subtly began to reach within his jacket, prompting her into action. In a flash, a sword appeared in her hand as she closed the gap on him, pressing the tip against his chest. "If you so much as think about using Lullaby right here..." she warned, feeling it unnecessary to complete her threat.

Kageyama's face winced at the sharp blade poking into his skin, looking frightened. Once he was sure Erza felt secure in their standings, he grinned at her as he rapidly sunk into the ground, his body losing all its color as he became an oval shadow on the floor. He slid under Erza's feet, making his way off the bridge with a smooth glide. His upper body reemerged as he chuckled, his hands tucked back in his pockets, signifying his misplaced confidence.

She analyzed the ability, and formulated her counterattack. "I'm going to give you one last chance to surrender. If you do, perhaps the Magic Council will be lenient in their sentencing," she said. She couldn't make that promise, but it was the best offer she could entice him with. The alternative was being decimated by her, _and_ receiving a harsher verdict.

Kageyama laughed, most of his legs still submerged in shadow form. "The Council? I've been a prisoner to their system for years." He tilted his head sideways a bit, raising an eyebrow. "Tell me, Erza. Do you enjoy your freedom?"

For a second, his question triggered a painful memory in Erza. Spoken in the same condescending tone, it had been a lifetime ago since that boy dismissed her with similar parting words, but they remained hauntingly clear in her mind.

_"Enjoy your 'freedom', Erza Scarlet."_

The armored wizard gritted her teeth, but didn't respond, allowing Kageyama to continue. "Being part of a Dark Guild means I have none of the rights you have. You get to walk around without a care in the world, whereas I have to be careful of where I show my face. No one from Eisenwald can go anywhere without having to constantly look over their shoulder for knights. All because the Magic Council decided we could no longer carry out people's darkest desires."

"That was the path you chose for yourself when you opted to stay in that line of work," Erza frowned, adjusting her grip on the sword. "You could've joined a legal guild and made an honest living. Instead, you refused to give up killing for money, and I can see that you won't heed my suggestion and turn yourself in. If you insist on complicating your own life with poor decisions, then so be it."

She charged at Kageyama, who slipped into the shadows again. She stabbed into the dark pool on the ground, but Kageyama's form bent away from the blade. He slipped behind her once more, looking to take advantage of her sword lodged between the cobblestones. "Knuckle Shadow!" he cried as his body fully reappeared, extending his shadow so a number of magical fists would strike up at Erza.

Playing possum, she easily removed her sword and slashed away his attack in one motion. Erza leapt at him and swung, but he dove into umbra form once more before she could connect. Kageyama made a break for it, leading Erza down the street that was fortunately only occupied by a man taking his dog for a walk by the canal. She followed him into a dead-end alley, but the buildings they were between offered total cover from the sun.

Erza knew he was setting her up for a trap. With such a large area to hide in, he could pop out from virtually anywhere in the alley. Standing at the entrance wasn't going to accomplish anything, though. She stepped into the shadows, keeping alert for any kind of stirring.

Predictably, he made his appearance from behind her, but in the middle of turning around, Erza's body stopped responding. It was as if she was encased in some sort of barrier molded to her figure. "What's going on? What're you doing?" she demanded. It seemed she still had some control over her neck and face, as she was able to speak freely and keep her eyes trained on him.

"You're in my Shadow Hold," Kageyame answered smugly. "As long as you're standing in my shadow, you won't be able to move a muscle, aside from that pretty little head of yours." He was outside of the alleyway, but his specter crept into the darkness encompassing Erza. "Now you're wide open! Shadow Ball!" Putting his hands together, a swirling black blob gathered within them. He hurled it at her with a sweep of his arms, the ball following a zigzagging trajectory before colliding against her.

He smirked at all the dust the explosion kicked up, thinking he'd won. Something then flashed right out of the cloud, and at the last second he managed to roll out of the way of a purple blade aimed for his head. Looking up, he saw Erza floating several feet in the air, skin dirtied but otherwise looking uninjured, and none too pleased in her new outfit. Her plain silver armor from a moment ago had been replaced with a black set that shielded her lower half as well as her upper. Her hair was also tied up in a high ponytail, but the most distinct feature was a pair of bat-like wings unfolding from her back.

"I figured you wouldn't retain that Shadow Hold once you thought I was defeated," she said ominously. "A grave mistake on your part. You'll find I'm not so easily struck down."

Kageyama's eyes widened as stories about a woman who could change her armor in the blink of an eye, stories he never paid much attention to, resurfaced to his mind. "So _you're_ the one they call Titania, Queen of the Fairies," he said in realization of her S-Class status. He shook his head, mustering up his nerve. "It doesn't matter if you've got some fancy new armor! You won't survive my deadliest attack!" he barked.

Erza smirked in amusement. "Oh? I'm curious to see it."

The Eisenwald mage dropped to a knee, placing his hand on the ground. "Shadow Orochi!" he said. A wave of squirming dark snakes erupted from in front of him, dozens of fanged jaws opening as they sped towards Erza, who made no attempt to protect herself. They slammed into her with a powerful crash, the force of which disturbed the canal waters and shook nearby windows.

The dark smog-like remains of his attack hung around for a second, but Kageyama was shocked that a body hadn't dropped from the sky. Once the shadows dissipated, he was left with mouth agape at Erza. She had been pushed back about a foot, and her skin scratched further from the blow, but she was still wearing that unflinching smile.

"That would've been quite devastating, if I had been wearing any other armor," she began to explain. "You see, I own a collection of armors imbued with powerful resistances against elemental magic. Originally, this Black Wing Armor of mine had no such fortifications, but I had it specially altered to minimize the potency of Darkness Magic."

Kageyama backpedaled, too frightened to think straight. Reasoning it as his last available option, his quivering hand slipped into his jacket, clasping around the wooden flute. Before he could pull Lullaby out and play its killing melody, Erza launched her own attack.

"Moon Flash!" she cried. She swung her sword twice, creating a pair of violet crescents of energy that hammered into her enemy. The impact left the sidewalk cracked and broken, the man that had taken the brunt of the hit in comparable condition. Kageyama lay unresponsive, the evil artifact that Eisenwald's plan had revolved around thrown a few feet away.

Returning to her default armor in a flash, Erza picked up the flute with the three-eyed skull for a head, inspecting the creepy design. "Lullaby..." she said its name like a curse as she tightened her metallic hold. "This power was locked away when it should've been destroyed." She clenched her fist completely, snapping the flute into two pieces. She thought she heard a demonic wail as it was splintered, but it was so faint, it was likely just her imagination. Looking back down at the unconscious Kageyama, she was able to give a soft smile as she pictured her friends. "All that's left now is the fall of Eisenwald. You all better come back safely."

**- 0 -**

Happy carried Natsu away from the Dark Guild's hall, flying deeper into the dead forest in pursuit of Erigor. Even if he was somehow made invisible by the wind, his scent was like a path of breadcrumbs to the hungry Dragon Slayer, leading him straight to a feast.

They exited the thicket of grayed trees, coming into a wide oval clearing. Even the dull green grass, the only color around, was gone here, leaving the ground within the clearing to show off a lifeless brown, with shades of a crimson tint to be seen in patches.

"Hold on, little buddy," Natsu said, getting Happy to stop moving laterally. He instead slowly lowered the boy until his sandals met the ground. "You can come out now, Erigor. This is where you wanted us, right?"

A sinister cackle sounded around them. Happy looked around for the source, but Natsu only ignited his fists. Erigor could magnify his laughter all he wanted, but he'd already determined where he was. He shot a fireball towards the hidden man, but it was snuffed out like a candlewick before it hit its target.

"Aren't you a little too eager to be killed?" Erigor asked, right before he made himself visible again. His legs were still crossed, the handle of his long scythe reclining on his shoulder. "Ah, but that's exactly why I lead you here, to Eisenwald Arena! This is where we bring legal-guild wizards we've been hired to kill. Dozens of flies like you have dropped here, so many in fact that their blood still stains the earth! Normally all of my men would surround you to prevent any ideas of escape you might have, but I don't think you were planning on that, now were you?"

Natsu smirked. "Why would I? We're all by ourselves out here. I've got you right where I want you."

Erigor laughed again. "You're an interesting one, I'll give you that. But just because I find you entertaining, doesn't mean your end will be any less painful. In fact, I think I might take my time and savor shredding you to pieces!"

Before he could make the opening move, Natsu beat him to it. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" he shouts, unloading a stream of flames in Erigor's direction. The silver-haired man swung his free arm out, commanding a strong gust of wind to smother Natsu's attack.

"Don't you know that wind trumps fire? Nature favors me!" he cried, making a gesture with his left hand. "Storm Bringer!" A tornado suddenly wrapped around Natsu, throwing him about within its confines. The wind also seemed to have a sharp quality to it, as the Dragon Slayer felt as if his whole body was being scraped.

The tornado settled, sending the boy crashing into a thick tree trunk. "Natsu!" Happy flew over to him, careful to give him some room. His clothes, apart from his scarf, were tattered thanks to the properties of Erigor's magic. Bits of his attire shook, clinging by threads, as he climbed back to his feet. "Your fire isn't gonna work against him. Got any other ideas?" the cat asked.

"Kick his ass the old-fashioned way," Natsu grinned despite the pain. He clenched his fists, as Happy grabbed on to the most secure parts left on his vest. Together, they ascended to Erigor's height, allowing Natsu to throw a bare-knuckle punch at his smug face. However, it was blocked by the scythe's staff. Despite having plenty of fighting practice with Happy carrying him, they weren't in any kind of sync. Happy wasn't able to effortlessly give him whatever motion range he wanted like usual, allowing Erigor to neatly repel every punch and kick aimed his way with his durable weapon. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Hoping Erigor had been lulled into a false sense of security, Natsu activated his flames again to smash through the scythe. The leader of Eisenwald had been prepared for it, and immediately quelled the magic with his own, blowing Natsu and Happy back down to the earth. "You're a slow learner, aren't you, fly?" he asked boastfully, twirling his blade.

"Sorry, Natsu," Happy apologized from his hands and knees. His Aera wings faded in a soft glow. "I couldn't hold on to you properly; your vest is just too torn up. Even if I could, I wouldn't have the magic left to keep you up there with him for very long."

"It's alright," Natsu said, giving him a pat on the head as he rose. "We're still gonna win this thing."

"Aye!" he responded, invigorated by the boy's refusal to give in.

"Win?" Erigor repeated, sounding as if he thought the idea was absurd. "At this point, most men would've tried to run away, but you're still talking as if you can beat me? You're delusional. Still, you should be honored to be the prologue of the new era. Once you and your friends are out of the way and Lullaby is delivered to me, the Guild Masters will be the first to hear The Reaper play his song at their doors."

Natsu scowled. "Like those geezers would even open up when they'd see your ugly mug." Taking off with a running start, he used flames at his feet to jump to Erigor's level. Keeping his legs aflame, he spun into what threatened to be a knockout kick. "Fire Dragon's Talon!"

"Storm Mail!" Erigor shrouded his lanky figure in a swirling wind armor, leaving just a pair of glowing white eyes to leer as Natsu's attack reached him. Instead of taking any damage, it was the Fairy Tail wizard who was repelled violently by the contact. He landed in a particularly red spot of ground, causing Erigor to guffaw in appreciation of the symbolism. "You have no way of getting to me! Nothing you've tried has worked, fly, so why don't you just bow your head and accept the inevitable? My scythe demands a last head before I unleash Lullaby on this world."

Taking that as a challenge, Natsu looked right up at him. Not a trace of fear or doubt was visible in his eyes. "You're really starting to piss me off, you know. You don't even have that stupid flute and you're already crowning yourself king of a new era. Well I happen to like this era, so you can forget about the Guild Masters and the Magic Council; _I'm_ the one you gotta get through right now, and I'm not gonna let that happen."

Erigor's eyes slanted in anger. "This world told The Reaper he could no longer kill, which only served to nail their own coffins shut! My rights were taken, so I will pay them in kind by taking their lives!"

"So you can't kill innocent people for money anymore, and _you're_ the victim?" Natsu asked ominously, his whole body encased in a fiery aura that continued growing in intensity. Happy, realizing things were going to become even more dangerous, skittered to the outer periphery of Eisenwald's torture grounds. "We've all got things we live for, and they're worth a lot more than whatever you make for murdering people. If your dream is to needlessly hurt others, then there's no redemption left for you!"

"Don't you see? I _am_ redemption, for all the sinners who refused my rights!" Erigor threw his scythe directly below him, the sharp end lodging itself into the dirt from the force. He became slightly visible through his Storm Mail as he began to motion with both hands. The gust picked up at the magic he was casting, until he crossed his fingers in an X at Natsu. "Punishment is here! Emera Baram!"

A massive wind vortex domed over the pink-haired mage, audibly ripping through the air. Dirt was strewn about, leaves crackling as they were torn in the storm. As his attack subsided, Erigor's sadistic laugh became the dominant noise in the disturbed forest. It rose an octave when he saw Natsu lying face-down on the ground, his vest indistinguishable, pants covered with more holes than an excavation site. "I'm glad to see your body held together after my strongest spell. Now I can dissect it in a more personal manner," he said, ending his Storm Mail as he retrieved his gleaming blade.

"Natsu! Are you okay?" Happy rushed over to his side. His look of concern diminished when Natsu began to stir, clenching a fistful of dirt before making it to his knees.

The Dragon Slayer released a warrior's cry as the fire around him returned, combusting even hotter than before. Happy hopped back to avoid being caught in the blaze, looking up at his best friend in awe as he sturdily planted his feet. Ending his yell at the sky, he turned his attention to Erigor, while first replying to the blue cat. "I'm not gonna be beaten by a little breeze like that," he said with a smirk, wiping away a trickle of blood from his right eyebrow. "Is that really the best move you got? I'd be pretty disappointed if you're holdin' out on me, Erigor."

The Dark Guild wizard's countenance was one of confusion and fury, battling to determine the emotion that would win out.

"It's great that you took his strongest attack like that, but you still haven't found a way to hit him," Happy reminded him with a smile. "Lucky for you, I think I found a way for you to beat him. Do you remember what Macao tried teaching you a few years ago?"

"That slicking my hair back would make me look irresistibly debonair?"

"Not that, dummy! I'm talking about the way he uses Fire Magic, how he can manipulate it into something solid, or so it won't burn what it touches! Since Erigor keeps blowing your flames away, maybe you can use what Macao taught you to finally get him!"

"Happy, you're a genius!" Natsu said brightly. "I never really understood what he was saying back then, but there's no better place to learn a new move than in the middle of a fight!" He shut his eyes in concentration, repeating Macao's instructions in his mind. If he wished hard enough, he'd been told, he could make his flames do more than just burn. What he wanted them to do now, was strike. "Fire Dragon's Flare Rain!" he shouted, opening his eyes to display reptilian pupils as he aimed a wide array of fiery bullets at his opponent.

Snapped back into the battle, Erigor grinned, swinging his scythe out to muster another defensive wind. His sneer vanished when his powers had no effect on Natsu's personalized spin on one of Macao's signature moves. The onslaught slammed against him, leaving dark singe marks on his pale skin as he was shot out of the sky. He rolled back to a vertical base, looking outraged at actually having been struck. "How did you do that? Why wasn't your fired snuffed out?" he demanded as he was raised by the air again.

Natsu smirked. "Are you asking for another demonstration?"

The Reaper howled as he reared back his scythe. "Shinigami Squall!" he yelled, throwing it at Natsu. The weapon, taking on a silvery glow, spun so fast it created a tornado around it. It threatened to bifurcate the Fairy Tail wizard if he hadn't jumped over the blade, but leaping through the windstorm resulted in his flesh screaming at him in misery.

He managed to ignore the pain in time to move away as the scythe boomeranged at him for another pass. This time he dodged to the side, allowing it to soar back to its owner and seemingly be collected. Instead, Erigor pointed at Natsu, grinning wildly, and as if controlled remotely, the scythe did a U-turn around him. Its velocity increased as it hunted down the scarfed boy for the third time.

"Fire Dragon's Flare Claw!" Natsu said, unleashing a giant four-fingered hook towards the oncoming attack. It snatched the scythe from the air as easily as Igneel used to catch flying meals, simply shutting his great jaws around unsuspecting birds. Natsu taunted Erigor by waving it at him, enjoying his astounded look at the power he wielded. Tossing the scythe away, he turned his new ability on Erigor himself. "Let's see you try to fly away from _this_!"

Try he did, but the ace of Eisenwald hadn't been fast enough to avoid the tether Natsu manipulated. The claw clutched at him, trapping his limbs helplessly to his sides. It took a second for him to notice the burning sensation, until he was already locked out of position to put out the real flames that engulfed him. He cried in unmitigated agony, until Natsu finally decided to show mercy, and drove him into the ground.

With Happy walking in front of him, Natsu sauntered towards the prone figure of Erigor, now starting to feel the aftereffects of the battle as his adrenaline stopped pumping. The circular impact zone smoldered, but the smoke around his body came directly from his burn wounds. If it wasn't for the slow rising of his chest, he could've been mistaken for dead, but Natsu had held back enough to avoid that outcome. He wanted to leave Erigor with a life that would deservedly be turned over to the authorities, the ones that had been his targets from the start.

"How do you think the others did?" Happy asked, moving to the other side of Erigor. "Think they all won, too?"

"Well, yeah," Natsu said, grinning despite his inability to stand straight at the moment. "Eisenwald didn't have anyone else as strong as this guy, and the two of us made out alright." Happy wanted to point out how ragged the boy looked, but chose not deflate his high spirits when he shared the glory. Smiling even bigger, he added, "Besides, we're the good guys. We get the happy ending, remember?"

**- 0 -**

After the Oshibana Knights Unit were called, they officially arrested the Dark Guild and had them carted off to the nearest infirmary. Natsu declined a visit himself, allowing his wounds to be addressed with just Happy's roll of bandages once they made their way back inside the building.

"Guess we all had our fun today," he said with a cheerful wince as Lisanna finished taping around his forehead. "Still, Happy and I came out the big winners. The only other person here who looks like they were actually in a fight is Elfman."

"You make it sound like it was some competition between who got beat up the most," Lucy sighed. "Anyway, while you guys were making your way back, Mira was able to get in touch with Erza again. She said she found Kageyama with Cana's help, took him out, and destroyed Lullaby."

"Of course," Happy affirmed as if it were the most obvious thing. "It's Erza we're talking about. She doesn't lose."

Mira smirked down at him, and Lucy thought perhaps the cat's blue fur became a shade paler at her expression. "Erza doesn't lose? I don't think I can believe that at all."

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed. "She might be able to handle one of those Eisenwald punks, but when we get back to the guild, I'll show her that I'm finally stronger than her!"

Lisanna giggled at his enthusiasm. "I hope you're not planning on having your fight as soon as you get back. If Erza gets her hands on you in the shape you're in now, all of my bandaging will have been for nothing. The only thing that would help you out then would be a full-body cast."

"A real man is willing to stake his battle flag anywhere, at any time!" Elfman cried in support, roughly patting Natsu on the shoulder. The boy froze up in pain at the touch.

Lucy smiled at the scene before her. Three siblings, a pyro and a cat casually chatting away, as if they hadn't just been coming off effectively shutting down a whole Dark Guild. At no point in her life did she think she'd ever feel like she belonged with such an arrangement, but as she stood around with her friends, the happiness that they exuded was clearly to be shared with her. They won together, and they would've lost together. Friendship had gathered them as the winner's circle in the ruined Eisenwald hall, and Lucy now had a crystal understanding of why that was the Fairy Tail way.

* * *

><p><em>And so the Lullaby arc comes to a close. Of all the fight scenes I've written over the years, I think these might be some of my best work.<em>

_I'll take a sec to explain some of the liberties I took in this chapter with the wizards' powers. I renamed Mira and Elfman's Take Over styles as Demon Soul and Savage Soul, because it always bugged me that it was both the technique and an individual form. Then, Elfman's Salamandra Arm came about when I thought it'd be cool if he had something a little different than just the assortment of melee spells he has. Given the deeper bond between him and Natsu that I wanna establish here, I thought a fire-based weapon for him seemed fitting._

_Erza's Black Wing Armor also serving as special defense against Darkness Magic, I always thought it was a very cool design, but felt it didn't really offer anything over her Heaven's Wheel Armor. Boost in speed and strength? Wings? Check, and check. This was my way of setting it apart while doing so in a somewhat realistic manner. I mean, if she were to have a Dark Empress Armor, wouldn't it look something like Black Wing? In fact, she does tend to wear it when facing guys who use Darkness Magic, so maybe it's not really a reach. Also, I changed her Moon Flash attack from blue to violet, to fit in more._

_As for Kageyama, I liked him and wanted to showcase him a little more. To have him be a bigger threat to Erza, I borrowed a bit more from Shikamaru. I'm not actually a Naruto fan, but I do have some knowledge on the series, and I thought I'd apply it. Along with Mewtwo's Shadow Ball (which always looked awesome in SSB), I'd hope that made up for the lack of Lullaby's giant form being used._

_When I first watched Natsu's fight with Erigor and he busted out the fire claw to save himself from falling, I figured that was how he was gonna win. He just learned how to manipulate his flames into something solid, pretty much erasing Erigor's advantage. Of course, it was never used again. I didn't want to miss that opportunity, and I'll look to use it again at some point._

_Anywho, this is where I usually thank you guys for reading, and try to coerce reviews out of you. That still applies, and I hope to see you guys at the next chapter as well!_


	8. Galuna Island Arc - Part 1

_And so we begin the fourth arc, Galuna Island. As promised, this is where we'll begin to see more characters take the spotlight, and, at the end, I have a special announcement regarding this fic! For now, though, I urge you to enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8<br>- Those Eyes, Whose Are They? -**

It had been two days since Lucy, Mira and the others had ventured into Oshibana and prevented Eisenwald from succeeding in their plan with Lullaby. As soon as they'd stepped through the guild doors that evening, Natsu barked out his intentions to face Erza. The members all froze as the redhead, only a small bandage under her left eye as proof of her part in the operation, nonchalantly walked up to the heavily-wrapped fire mage, and knocked him out cold with a single armored punch to the temple.

"How can we enjoy our fight if neither of us is at full strength?" she'd asked his unconscious form with a wondrous smile as the guild formed a circle around them. "Let's take a day or two to rest. Then I can answer your challenge."

The day after, the antsy Natsu, down to minimal bandaging, kept glaring over at Erza from the table he was seated at with Happy and Lisanna. Erza, who merrily ate a slice of strawberry cheesecake, kept shaking her head in decline at his invitation whenever she looked up from her plate.

"Why exactly does Natsu wanna fight Erza so bad?" Lucy asked, sitting with Cana. "Does he have something against her?"

The brunette grinned. "In a sense. Growing up, Erza was kind of like the responsible older sister to the rest of us. She always used to step in whenever he and Gray would get into it - which was all the time, basically. She'd utterly destroy the two of them and then tell them to behave. You'd think that after all the beatings, something would've clicked, but all the boys seemed to have learned is to only fight when Erza's away on a job. More than anything else, though, it's probably his fixation to be the strongest in the guild."

"That's what I figured," Lucy said. Ever since Lisanna had told her Natsu wanted to show Igneel how strong he was when they'd meet again, she'd taken note at how he was always looking for the most dangerous option available on their excursions. He'd eagerly gone against the odds when he fought the two Vanish Brothers, and he'd turned down help when he faced off against Erigor. It made sense that if he wanted to become even more powerful, the top dogs in Fairy Tail were fair game to him, as well.

"I'm not taking no for answer today!" he exclaimed the following morning, as he made his signature entrance, kicking the hall doors open. "Erza! You and me!"

"If you insist," Erza nodded from her seat at the bar with Makarov. The time off had done them well. Both of them were free of gauze, and showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever. The fight was on.

The battleground was just off to the side of the guild hall, an open grassy plain that easily accommodated the entire membership that ringed around the contestants. As Cana played the role of bookie, taking bets with a board that indicated an immense favoring for Erza, Lucy went to stand by the Strauss siblings. "So, what chances do you give him?" she asked conversationally.

"None," Mira replied bluntly with a smirk.

"A real man always gives himself a shot," Elfman intoned, but then added with less enthusiasm, "even if it's not a very good one."

"He has my support," Lisanna offered, trying to sound bright, but didn't exactly look as confident as she would've liked.

"He can do it! I believe in him!" Happy squeaked at Lucy unequivocally from in front of Cana's stand, holding out a small pouch of Jewel to her. After accepting the money, she scratched another tally under the Erza column.

"Et tu, Happy?!" the blonde cried.

"Erza's gonna win; it's not even a question," a pleased voice said, drawing closer. Gray walked up to the group, smiling as he watched the two combatants stretching midfield in preparation. "Now matter how strong Natsu likes to think he's gotten since the last time they fought, he's still no match against her."

"Give him some credit," another new voice, this one feminine, joined their crowd. Levy, along with Jet and Droy, stopped before them. "I know Erza's on another planet compared to us, but Natsu doesn't have the heart to take defeat quietly."

"Hey guys," Lucy greeted Team Shadow Gear with a warm smile. "When'd you get back from your job?"

"Just this morning," Levy explained, motioning to the white complex atop the hill visible from the battleground - Fairy Hills, as she'd learned. "Everyone was so excited about the fight, I didn't even have time to unpack before coming down."

"Combatants, ready!" Makarov declared from in between Natsu and Erza. The Guild Master held his hand up in the air, silencing the buzzing crowd to a low, anticipating murmur.

Lucy and the others decided to hold off on catching up, turning their full attention to the grand event about to start. For a brief instant, she thought she noticed Loke gazing at her from directly across the plain, partially obstructed by Macao and Wakaba. However, the ladykiller shifted his head, his glasses catching the sun's glare to hide his eyes.

"This is it, Erza," Natsu grinned, putting his fists together. "I'm not the kid you used to beat up on when we were younger anymore. I'm due for some payback."

"I admire your resolve," Erza's lips raised slightly at she complimented him. "Show me how much you've closed the gap between us."

As soon as the suspense grew to unbearable levels, Makarov dropped his arm, and jumped out of the way. "Begin!"

Natsu wasted no time. His fists and feet trailed fire as he dashed at Erza with a grin. He swung at her, flames scattering as his blow missed its target. Erza hopped over him, her whole body enveloped in a glow as flipped through the air.

"Requip!" she shouted. She landed, immediately blocking Natsu's follow-up kick with her forearm. The blaze around his foot seemed to have no effect on the new armor she had summoned, a red, orange and black leotard ensemble that granted her a crimson sword and pigtails. The gauntlet around her arm easily withstood against the boy's magic, even as he upped the heat.

"How'd she change so fast?" Lucy asked, astonished. She'd heard tales of Erza's unprecedented abilities in the time leading up to the fight, but she'd never witnessed a transformation so instantaneous. She'd thought the Take Overs she'd seen used by Lisanna and Mira had been quick, but they were a drawn-out process when timed against the strongest woman in Fairy Tail.

"That's the power of The Knight, Erza's unique style of Requip Magic," Happy chirped. "She can change her armor and weapons faster than, well, just about anything. It's one of the things that makes her so special!"

"What she's wearing now, that's Flame Empress Armor," Gray said, smirking at his rival's misfortune. "Its defenses halve the strength of Fire Magic. If Natsu had any prayer of winning before, it's gone now."

"Don't count him out just yet," Lisanna replied with a faithful frown. "That armor also gives Erza fire-based attacks, which are completely useless against Natsu. It's not exactly a stalemate, but it's not the advantage you might think it is."

The Dragon Slayer knew of the effects of Erza's armaments, but he only grinned at the challenge it presented. The audience could feel the heat radiating off of his flames, sending waves with every punch and kick he threw. Erza weaved around most of his strikes and absorbed the others with her bracers, leg guards, and sword, playing defense while lashing out at the most opportune moments.

Lucy was told that her blade could be lit tremendously ablaze, but such a technique would be detrimental against someone who'd be revitalized from consuming fire. Instead she used it as a normal weapon, slicing at Natsu without any of its magical properties when she found a lapse in his movements. The boy's tireless motor and superb battle instincts helped him narrowly evade having his blood spilled, but pieces of his clothes were drifting along in the breeze.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu cried out, sucking in a lungful of air. Erza readied her sword to ward off his firebreathing, but was momentarily surprised when he instead aimed his attack at the ground, a few feet from where she stood. The small explosion sent bits of grass, dirt and embers afloat in a haze of smoke, giving him the screen to try a rolling kick from above her head.

With inhuman reflexes, Erza parried the blow with the flat side of her weapon. She used his momentum against him, repelling him several yards away with a great swing. Natsu landed gracefully, the crowd cheering vehemently at the show they were putting on.

"I'm impressed by the levels you've gained in power," Erza said, nodding her head. "But now that I feel I've properly gauged your new-found strength, there's no need to continue on. I'll end this here." Another flash of light saw her Flame Empress gear Requipped with a silver armor, a beautiful metallic design reminiscent of an angel.

"Heaven's Wheel Armor," Mira commented with a glint in her eyes. "Now she's gotten serious."

"So this whole time she's been holding back?" Lucy asked. She knew for a fact that Natsu was an absolute terror, but at no point did he seem to have been winning the fight. And that was against an opponent who wasn't even giving it their all? The S-Class Wizards of Fairy Tail were truly a sight to behold.

Lucy's awe only grew as Erza began to rise up, kept airborne by her set of four steel wings. A number of lights began to appear around her, molding into an array of swords. "Dance, my blades," she commanded, the weapons forming a ring that spun around her with extreme velocity. She raised the pair of swords in her hands in the next step of her attack, but she never unleashed it on the braced Natsu.

"Stop this fight immediately!" an unfamiliar croaking was aimed towards the combatants. The whole guild looked around for its owner, until a parting opened up to allow a tall, anthropomorphic frog in official's robes to enter the designated battleground. "Erza Scarlet!"

"What is the meaning of this?" Makarov demanded of their intruder. His frown deepened when he recognized her species, and who they were the signature employees of. The symbol on her garb left no question about who was behind her sudden appearance.

"I am here on behalf of Master Siegrain of the Magic Council!" the frog announced, eliciting a gasp from the guild members before they could begin to boo her for interfering with the match. "He wishes to speak with Erza Scarlet. I will escort her to the Council's Fiore Branch Headquarters, effective immediately. Compliance with this request is obligatory."

"What could Siegrain want with Erza?" Levy asked, the question that was being whispered across the crowd.

"Siegrain," Lucy tried the name out on her tongue. She knew he was a high-profile character, but wanted to be sure she wasn't mistaking him for someone else. "He's the youngest person to ever join the Magic Council, and be named to the Ten Wizard Saints, right?"

As she got her confirmation from her friends around her, a perturbed Erza returned to her default armor. Natsu put out the flames on his body, and positioned himself in her way, blocking her off from the Council's messenger. "What's the deal, Erza? How does this Siegrain guy know you?" He could see the hurting on her visage as soon as it had been revealed who had sent for her. Anything or anyone that caused that reaction from her left a bad taste in his mouth.

Her swept bangs covered her right eye as she gave him an apologetic smile, trying to set him at ease. "I'm sorry about this, Natsu. Perhaps we can finish this at a later time," she said, sounding uncomfortably unlike the young woman of renowned strength she was.

Without another word, Erza walked past Natsu and joined the Council's envoy. She nodded to Makarov, who, while appearing stern in the face of confusion, nodded back in a show of support. The frog placed a webbed hand on Erza's plated shoulder, then the two vanished completely, leaving only crushed grass beneath where their feet had been just a second ago.

**- 0 -**

The first thing Erza saw after leaving Magnolia was a long hallway. Her escort lead her down the blue-tiled floor, until they came to a set of grand antique double doors. The frog bowed to her and teleported away again, leaving her alone to face the man inside the room.

She took a deep breath, then lifted an arm to knock, signifying her arrival. She paused, clenching and unclenching her fist repeatedly as she stalled the inevitable. Finally, before she could rap against one of the wooden doors, they slowly opened forward without so much as a creak. Erza looked inside the study, finding portraits and bookshelves lining the walls. A large desk sat at the other end of the room, but no one was behind it.

She hesitated again before stepping inside, making her way to the chair before the desk. Stiffly setting herself in the rich velvet cushioning, she attempted to remain expressionless when a figure began to develop in the seat opposite her. A moment later, a handsome young man with blue hair and a distinct tattoo around his right eye had finished appearing.

"Erza," he spoke with a rough voice that was charmingly smooth all the same, smiling at the girl who suddenly felt very cold within her armor. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

"Siegrain," she replied curtly. While this wasn't the same boy that had haunted her since childhood, his smirk, his eyes, his entire face was unmistakably the same as the one in her nightmares. "Why have you brought me here?"

His being flickered. This wasn't the real, flesh-and-bone Council Member Siegrain, but rather a projection he was transmitting, likely from their central headquarters in Era. "Come now, Erza," he grinned. "It's been a long time since we've last spoken. I was hoping we could at least begin civilly enough."

Despite her best efforts, her frown broke through. "You just interrupted a good fight I was having with a friend, so forgive me for not being in the mood for pleasantries," she said sardonically.

Siegrain chuckled, then reached across the desk to cup her chin. Even though he was merely an apparition, she could feel a chilling pressure on her skin where he would've been touching her. She jerked her head back, scowling at him maliciously. "It's unbecoming of such a beautiful young lady to appear so serious all the time," he said, returning properly to his seat. "I do wish you would smile at me more. It pains me that I'm never rewarded for my efforts with even that much from you."

Erza hated him. She hated him more than anyone she'd ever met in her life. Still, there was a reason she put up with such a loathsome man. "Quit with your inane game," she demanded. "Have you found it yet? Have you found...?"

The Wizard Saint observed her with what most would misinterpret as a placid expression. Erza couldn't help but feel small under his gaze, his head tilted to the side, propped up by his arm. And she knew he knew how it made her feel. "I want to know," he finally began, elongating his speech, "if you've told anyone."

"No," came her pointed response.

He wasn't deterred from pressing on, his smirk intact. "I've heard rumors that Makarov is considering retirement in the coming future, and that he has begun to make a list of those who could possibly succeed him as the next Guild Master of Fairy Tail. Needless to say, if you are on that list, it means that he has a great deal of trust in you - trust that is likely to be reciprocated."

"I've never spoken a word to Master Makarov about the Tower," she said, forcing her resolve at his insinuation. "So have you found it, or learned anything new, or are you just wasting my time?"

Siegrain stared at her with the same look she detested for another moment before answering. "The oceans are a vast place." The redhead almost crushed the armrest of her chair at this, but softened her grip when he continued. "However, I strongly feel like I've made progress. I have eliminated a thousand-mile radius ranging from your landing spot in Fiore to the western seas."

Erza exhaled, looking down at her bare knees. It was only now that she began to feel worn from her prior battle. "I need to stop him," she whispered to herself.

"_We_ will stop him," Siegrain corrected, suddenly stonefaced. "My brother will not realize -"

A knock interrupted him, drawing both of their eyes to the doors. They opened without any kind of push again, allowing a stunning black-haired woman in white silk robes to enter. Her hips swayed with raw sensuality as she made her way to Siegrain's desk. She sat down on the corner cross-legged, studying Erza with a smile coated in red lipstick.

"What are you doing here, Ultear?" he asked of the woman, his fellow Council Member.

"I heard that you'd summoned the mighty 'Titania' Erza. I only wanted to see such a famed warrior for myself," she replied. She had the seductive voice befitting of a temptress, but her tone was innocuously curious enough. "So just what is it that the two of you have been discussing so secretly?"

Erza and Seigrain shared a look. A second later, he answered with a serious expression. "It is exactly what you think it is. Erza and I are paramours."

"That is _not_ true!" the redhead shouted. She would never go along with that as their cover-up, and he knew it. She mentally kicked herself over having fallen into another of his stupid little snares with her reaction.

"Oh?" Ultear asked, her eyes gleaming with amusement. "Well, I don't believe I'll be getting a straight answer from either of you. Perhaps I should leave, and give you two some time to get your story in order."

"That won't be necessary," the Fairy Tail mage said, rising from her seat as she bore a hole through the center of Siegrain's forehead. "I was just about to leave myself. Now, if you'll excuse me." She turned on her heel without bothering to look at the man's smirk, marching out of the room with a new focus. He had told her little of substance, so she would not dwell on their meeting. Instead, as she walked down the hallway, she tried to consist her thoughts solely on finding one of the Council's teleporting frogs to return her to Magnolia.

Ten seconds after Erza's exit, Ultear turned to Siegrain with a dark smile. "Well? Do you believe her?"

The blue-haired boy grinned as he ensconced himself in his chair. "I never doubted her for a moment. Erza would never do anything to bring even more harm to those friends of hers in the Tower. So long as we keep giving that girl the slightest bit of hope that her efforts will one day mean something, she will do whatever I ask of her. She alone almost makes our contingencies pointless. How is it that we are fortunate enough to have such a perfect pawn?"

Ultear's smirk grew even wider as her eyes narrowed surreptitiously at him. "How fortunate, indeed."

**- 0 -**

Lucy was right in the middle of a demonstration of Cana's Card Magic when Erza walked through the guild doors. Instead of quieting down over her severity, all the other wizards instead watched her with a sort of anticipation, as if she would reveal the details of her rendezvous with Siegrain. Instead, she made a beeline for the bar counter. Without a word, she held up three fingers to the barkeeper, who promptly presented her with three slices of cheesecake.

"Whoa," Gray whispered. Sitting at the table with Lucy and Cana, he was the recipient of the brunette's fortune-telling abilities. "Erza never binges like that unless she's really down. I wonder what happened with that Council guy?"

"You know how she is," Cana said with a swig from her mug, before picking up the cards on the table and reshuffling her deck. "She won't say anything to anyone, and if you're dumb enough to ask her about it..."

After the abrupt ending to their fight, Natsu, accompanied by Happy and Lisanna, ventured into the East Forest to let off some steam. What that meant, exactly, Lucy didn't know, but if the flying cat looked excited about it, perhaps that was for the best. She instead returned to the hall with Cana, who offered to read her fortune with her magic cards. While she could admit to being a little intrigued as to what the future held for her, she decided she'd rather enjoy the surprises when they came to be. After some sweet pleading, Cana roped Gray into a reading instead, stating that it had been too long since their last session.

"Let's try this again," she said, finishing up the shuffling. Erza's return had broken her concentration, so she would have to begin the process from the start. She held the deck out to Gray, who accepted it with a sigh. He held it in between his hands, the stack of cards letting off a glow within his hold. After a moment, he passed them back to their owner. Cana set the deck on the table once more, and closed her eyes in focus. Slowly, one by one, cards drifted out from the deck from its varied order, laying themselves face-down between the two involved wizards.

This was where they had been interrupted. The first time, only two cards had been drawn out before Erza had arrived. Now, the spell was able to be completed, a total of four cards set. Lucy watched carefully as the first card flipped itself over, revealing a picture of a red heart melting into a dark, murky puddle.

"Looks like you've got unrequited love in your future," Cana said with a knowing smile.

"Awesome," Gray muttered dryly.

Lucy couldn't help but smile a little at the shades of disappointment on his face. One of her favorite quotes to come from a novel dearest to her was 'Unrequited love is the mark of a kind person'. She wouldn't have expected the cool Gray to remind her of that excerpt, but his reaction over the thought was kind of cute.

The following card in the sequence turned over, although instead of facing towards Cana the reader, it faced Gray. This cast a pensive look on her face as she considered the picture before her. It was of a man journeying on a dirt path, but rather than showing the road ahead of him, it displayed the trail he had left behind.

"What does that mean?" Lucy asked for an explanation when it seemed Gray wanted one, but wouldn't formulate the question.

Instead of replying, Cana flipped the next card face-up. Again it was turned towards Gray. This time, the picture was of a bright full moon. It was originally blue in color, but after a second, a glow turned it purple. The brunette raised her eyebrows at the change, while Gray frowned, and Lucy appeared spooked.

After having done numerous fortune-tellings with Cana over the years, the ice mage had learned better than to question her cards before she decided to answer. This was a unique case, though. "That's never happened before," he said in a low voice. "What's that mean?"

Again, Cana remained silent at the inquiry. The last card revealed itself, upside-down just as the last two had been. It featured an island with a sunny background, but only for an instant before the artwork shifted again. The blue sky became the navy of the night, and the fluffy white clouds it had sported thinned into black bat-shaped wings. The yellow sun, into the same violet moon from the previous card.

For almost a minute, no one at their table spoke. Even the energetic chatter of the guild seemed to be on mute as the older girl tried to process what her cards were communicating, transfixed by the images. Lucy finally took it upon herself to break the silence. "Hey, Cana?"

"Gray," she said softly, sounding uncertain still, "have you ever been to a place called Galuna Island?"

"Galuna Island?" he repeated. "No. Never even heard of it. Why? What're the cards saying?"

Factoring in his answer, Cana drummed her fingernails on the table for another second before committing to her response. "I'm not really sure. All I can say is that there's something important from your past at Galuna Island, and you should probably be there."

Gray frowned. "My past...?" He peered down at the cards before him, as if trying to decode them himself.

Lucy had been informed that many of the younger wizards in Fairy Tail had traveled tragic walks of life that lead them to the guild, Gray being one of them. Unlike some of the others, he had been very reserved about what that entailed, as only the girl beside her was privy to his story. She suddenly felt awkward, as if this moment should probably be shared between him and Cana.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but overhear," a strong voice said off to the side. Erza approached them, holding the small plate with her last piece of dessert. She had regained her normal form, even as prepared for her next bite. "You were discussing Galuna Island?"

"You know about it?" Gray asked quickly, then settled down. He didn't want to get ahead of himself.

Erza, ever the proper lady, paused for a moment, not wanting to speak with her mouth full. As she continued to chew, she turned her gaze up to the second floor of the guild hall. "There's an S-Class mission waiting to be completed there," she said after swallowing.

"What kind of mission?" Lucy asked, hoping she didn't come off as nosy. Since teaming up with Mira, the prospects of S-Class work held great interest for her, especially when she learned that the jobs were kept away from those that had yet to achieve the rank. The Take Over mage had explained about the request board on the second floor, forbidding anyone that hadn't passed the trials from even browsing through the extremely perilous jobs.

"If I recall correctly, it's supposed to be cursed," the redhead said. This caused them to look at the last card again, the island at night with bats flying in the sky. "The locals believe that they are under a wicked spell, and that the moon is the source of their plight. Thus, they are asking those that would accept the mission to destroy the moon."

Cana actually stopped mid-drink to stare at her with utmost cynicism. "You're joking, right?" she said, sounding far away as she spoke into the confines of her mug.

Erza shrugged. "It's odd, yes, but the mission has been validated as S-Class for a reason. There must be sinister forces at play, and the locals are simply under the wrong impression of what's truly going on."

Gray suddenly stood from from his seat on the bench. "Erza," he began, looking straight into the eyes of his old friend with absolute conviction. "I need you to take me to Galuna Island."

She didn't process his request for more than a handful of seconds before she refused. "I'm sorry, but no."

"Cana said there's something there, waiting for me," he continued, undeterred. "I need an S-Class Wizard to get me there, and you could do that."

Erza shook her head. "The meeting Master Makarov just returned from was to stress the importance of mission safety. After a team of unsuspecting wizards were killed during what was supposed to be a relatively harmless book-retrieval mission, their deaths were covered up by not just the culprits - the client failed to report them at the time, as well," she explained, looking at Lucy. She had heard of the hand she'd had in bringing the villainous Duke Everlue and Vanish Brothers to justice. "The Guild Masters are now paying more attention with making sure that clients are honest with their requests' level of danger, so something like that won't repeat itself. I won't be taking an unqualified wizard on an S-Class mission on the heels of their decision."

It was evident that Gray was keeping himself from snarling at her. "Please. Erza. This is important. If that curse is somehow connected to me, I have to know." The anger he displayed toned down, leaving him looking almost sad. "I don't want any more people hurt because of me."

The armored wizard also relaxed a bit, but held her stance. "You remember what happened a few years ago when Mira took her siblings and Natsu out on an S-Class quest, right? The poor boy was almost killed. I don't want something similar happening to you."

"That was because they weren't ready for it," he said, flaring up again. "I wouldn't have been two years ago, either, but now I'm strong enough to hold my own if it came down to it."

"Are you sure about that?" Erza asked. It wasn't that she didn't believe him. She wanted to know if he believed that himself.

"Why not just take a whole team of wizards with you?" Cana suggested as if it was as obvious as her need for a refill. "Destroying the moon doesn't sound like a two-person job."

"You'll come with us?" Gray asked, sounding hopeful in thanks for her support. "That'd be perfect; you're practically S-Class anyway."

The brunette leaned back in her seat nonchalantly. "I didn't say that, exactly, but I'll go..." she said, before wrapping an arm around Lucy's shoulders with a big grin, "...if we get to bring our favorite new girl with us."

"Wait a sec -" Lucy cried, trying to wrestle free. "You wanna take me on an S-Class job?"

Cana only pulled her in closer. "You just went with Mira and those others to waste a whole Dark Guild, remember? How much more dangerous can this be?" she asked breezily.

Erza crossed her arms over her designer breastplate. "I've heard of your accomplishments so far in the short amount of time you've been with us, Lucy. I understand you're a remarkable young mage," she said (naturally, this reeked of Happy's influence), "but since I've yet to see you in action for myself, I will admit to having reservations about you joining us."

Whatever was necessary to get to that island, Gray was on board with. If bringing Lucy was Cana's condition, he was fine with that. "Then why don't we add one more, someone you're already familiar with?" he said, looking past the girls to the table behind them. "You've been listening to all this, haven't you, Loke? You wanna come along?"

The young man with his back to them suddenly stiffened at being called out. He turned his head to face them, but meekly averted Lucy's curious watch. "Yeah, I heard it all. Sounds like fun, but, I don't know..."

"Is that because of me?" she asked him, hoping to catch his eyes. "Look, these guys would be better off if they had someone with more experience than me, so you can go in my place."

"No way," Cana reneged. She walked up from her spot at her table, only to sit back down next to Loke. "Whatever issues you've got with Celestial Wizards, get over them, 'cause Lucy's coming along with us, and so are you." Loke didn't seem to be ready to take that leap, but he did look a little more comfortable with a beautiful girl at his side. Cana noticed this immediately, putting on a flirty smile. "Are you really gonna pass up the opportunity to ride on a cozy ferry with this trifecta? Blonde, brunette, redhead; every man's dream."

For fear of losing out on his help, Gray didn't mention how it was basically his job they were all being recruited for, so he wouldn't be the only boy present on the ferry. Meanwhile, Erza and Lucy shared a look that told the other they weren't very happy with Cana's pitch, but they too refrained from speaking out.

After going through everyone's gaze, Loke stopped at Lucy's for a quick second. In that instant, she managed to give him an encouraging smile, enough to tint the womanizer's cheeks the tiniest bit of pink. He sighed as he adjusted his glasses, hoping to distract from his blush. "Fine. I'm in."

"Great!" Lucy cheered, already thinking ahead to the S-Class reward waiting at the end of their mission. Saving a cursed island sounded especially daunting, so surely the locals would make it worth their while. Even with having to divide their earnings by five ways, her rent could potentially be set for the duration of her lease. "So, how much does this job pay?"

Erza sighed as she climbed the stairway up to the hall's second floor. She had never actually confirmed that she would take Gray to Galuna Island, but by the time the others consented to the team, it would've crushed her to say no. After her meeting with Siegrain about what she hoped to accomplish regarding her past, she couldn't in good conscience deprive Gray of the same. As vague as Cana's prediction was, she had deemed it significant, and her history with fortune-telling spoke for itself.

She also couldn't deny the power of their unit. As Gray had mentioned, Cana had the strength and smarts of an S-Class wizard, while the boys were two of the brightest up-and-coming mages in the guild. Lucy was the unknown commodity, but she had gained an impressive reputation in a very short amount of time, earning even Mirajane's approval. With this collection, hopefully they would avoid a disaster like The Beast job from two years back.

After she removed the flyer from the S-Class board and turned it in to Master Makarov, she looked over to the group they'd assembled, smiling back graciously at her for the opportunity. For the first time, she would be going on a mission as part of a team, and she couldn't help but be a little excited at the idea herself.

* * *

><p><em>So a bit of a change of pace in this chapter, as it actually followed Erza for a good portion of it. I liked getting into her head, but I don't wanna take away from Lucy's perspective for extended periods outside of battles, so I doubt we'll be seeing much more of that. In any case, we've got the squad for the arc, and for the first time in this story, it doesn't include Natsu, Happy, and Lisanna. It's odd to think of Fairy Tail without Natsu, I know, but I'm confident you'll enjoy what I've got planned.<em>

_As for that announcement, I'm beginning a new sister story to this fic, entitled "Another Imagining - Sidestories". It will include a series of oneshots based on my Fairy Tail world here, fun and feels-inducing moments that I wanted to write, but don't exactly fit in the main story. So, I decided to create a new fic for those, where chapter updates and content will often coincide. My hope is that if you follow along here, you'll do the same for my omake-style Sidestories._

_As always, thanks for reading, guys. I'll see you at the next chapter, and hopefully at Sidestories, too! And as far as reviews go, I like those, too, so, yeah..._


	9. Galuna Island Arc - Part 2

_Destroying the moon? Sounds a bit tricky, but if there's any guild that could get it done, Fairy Tail's as good as it gets when it comes to wrecking things. We might not have our signature firestarter to do it, but this team won't let you down either. Anyway, enough with the sales pitch! On to the story!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 9<br>- Call Of The Haunted -**

Erza had demanded that Gray, Cana, Loke, and Lucy be all packed up and ready to go first thing in the morning, arranging their meeting place as the train station instead of the guild. The blonde girl had gotten to say goodbye to Levy and her team, as well as Mira and Elfman, before leaving the hall the night their mission was agreed upon, but unfortunately didn't see Natsu, Lisanna and Happy again. She felt bad departing from the trio that had been so inviting since she joined Fairy Tail, even a little guilty that she had taken a job with another group without speaking to them at all about it. Mira assured her that they would understand, that they'd tell her to not worry about it and just enjoy herself. It was easy enough to visualize Lisanna saying that, and maybe even Happy, but Natsu, that one was a bit of a reach.

She was reminded even more of her friends on the train down to Hargeon, the seaside town in which she'd first met Natsu and Happy. It was also strange not having to feel anxious about the Dragon Slayer potentially losing his lunch somewhere along the ride, and Plue also seemed to miss having the blue cat to play with. Her little dog spirit did, however, appear curiously fascinated with the auburn-haired wizard sitting by himself across the walkway.

Loke, the odd man out of the four-seat sections, pretended to ignore Plue's gestures towards him. Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy noticed that at one point, he did pass her pint-sized mascot a warm smile.

Having contacted the shipyard ahead of time, Erza lead them down to the docks upon arriving in the port town. Their liaison, a cloaked sailor named Bobo, had been waiting for them with a tiny raft. When the redhead expressed in her typical stern fashion that they needed a bigger boat, Bobo hurried off to acquire a small but comfortable ferry for their use with Jewel Erza provided. Her schedule had been thrown off by about thirty minutes, but at least they had a ship to her liking.

"You guys are a brave bunch, heading out to Galuna Island," Bobo commended as they hopped aboard. "Most people that come to the docks asking about it lose their nerve when we tell them that not even pirates - ruffians that're supposed to wanna loot everything in sight - will go near the place."

"And how come _you_ seem to be okay with taking us there?" Gray asked with his arms crossed. Erza had mentioned the trouble it had taken to find a sailor who even knew how to find the tropical isle, let alone one that would be willing to escort them there.

Bobo chuckled grimly, raising the anchors to begin their course. "'Cause I'm from the village on Galuna myself."

Surprise was the prevailing emotion on the team's faces at his revelation. Cana was the first to note the glaring question, and promptly inquired. "So then what can you tell us about this supposed curse? Were you around when it began?"

"I was," he said, appearing somber at the thought. "I didn't stick around for very long after it started, so I can't tell you much about it, but this is just a sample of what it did to us." He slipped his left arm out from underneath his cloak, but none of the wizards had been prepared for what he would show them. Instead of human flesh, the skin on his bony arm appeared shriveled up and leathery. It was a dark shade of purple, and his hand extended into five spiky claws.

Gasps filled the cabin. For a moment Lucy wondered if perhaps their reactions had offended Bobo, but the poor man remained indifferent. She thought of him as very courageous himself, to live with the effects of Galuna's curse. It also couldn't have been easy for him to return to the home he'd escaped from, and risk that blight spreading.

"We're sorry about your condition," Erza offered sincerely. "We'll find a way to restore your arm, and anyone else affected in your village. You have our word."

After thanking them for pledging their help, the cabin emptied out to leave Bobo to steer the ship. Erza stood at the front of the deck, her hair and skirt flowing majestically as she watched for the first sighting of their destination, while Gray did the same from his position atop the cabin. Lucy declined Cana's invitation to help her raid the storage below the deck for alcohol, allowing her to approach Loke.

"Isn't it a little hot for a jacket out here?" she asked in an amiable tone as she leaned against the railing beside him.

Loke, who had been hunched over the railing, straightened stiffly at her words. A second later, he resumed his position, watching the ship plow through the surf instead of giving his attention to the girl. "It's a small price to pay for looking so good," he replied with a tiny smile, sounding more like the charming boy he was reputed to be.

Lucy was happy that he seemed to be opening up to her. "With an attitude like that, I'm a little surprised you didn't end up in Blue Pegasus," she teased. Someone with his looks and keen awareness of them would've fit right in at the guild known for its vanity.

Whatever progress she thought they'd made, though, she feared it was lost with the comment. Loke's face immediately soured, and she fully expected him to storm off if there was somewhere he could avoid her for the rest of the trip. Instead, he only remained with his scowling gaze aimed at the sea.

Lucy took it as a sign he didn't want to hear anything more from her, but she would at least try to apologize. "I'm sorry. I was just making a dumb joke. I didn't mean to upset you."

Loke exhaled audibly a moment later. "It's alright," he sighed, but he still refused to turn to her.

"I'm glad you're a part of Fairy Tail," she continued softly, hoping to ease back into his good graces. Whatever his bias was against Celestial Wizards, she was determined to change his mind. "It's a great place to make friends."

The boy adjusted his glasses. They had been slipping down the bridge of his nose as he stared below him, but it was also to draw attention away from the tugging at his lips. He knew what she was getting at, and as much as he would like for the two of them to grow closer, it was for the best that he kept her at a distance. "You know, I was hoping that you and the other girls would be making use of our bikini-friendly environment. Just because I'm covered up doesn't mean you should follow in my example. Feel free to bust out the water-wear," he encouraged cheekily.

Instead of being put off by the comment, Lucy simply smirked at him. "I guess Gray's got the right idea, huh?" she retorted, looking up the boy on the cabin roof. Since she'd last seen him, he'd shed all of his clothes but his dark boxers. His focused gaze had yet to change, however.

About an hour into their voyage, Cana resurfaced from the storage room in high spirits. With a cat-like grin, she dragged Lucy away from Loke, who at least now seemed okay with making small talk with the blonde, and took her to Erza. To pass the time left, she challenged the two to a round of strip poker. Erza was goaded into participating without much difficulty, but Lucy vehemently refused to play.

"_So_ not happening!" she cried, looking back at the boys. Of course, selective hearing had kicked in, and they were staring at the trio, waiting to see where things would go. She then looked through the cabin's windshield, to see if Bobo had also been listening in, but the room with the guiding wheel was empty, moving on its own with help from the sea's strong currents. "Hey, where's...?"

The girls and Loke followed her gaze, and their confusion prompted Gray to drop down to the shaking deck and take a look for himself. He opened the door and stepped into the cabin, his frown visible through the glass. "Where could he have gone?" he asked as he came back out.

"None of us noticed him leaving the cabin," Erza said, crossing her arms, "and if he tried to escape through the back door, we would've heard him diving into the water if his plan was to swim back to the mainland."

"So then what happened?" Loke asked, sounding engaged about their mission for the first time. "People don't just disappear into thin air."

"I think we might have a bigger problem," Cana pointed behind them. The cause of the growing instability of the ferry was attributed to a huge tidal wave, piling on more than twenty feet over their heads as it rapidly approached their vessel.

The veteran wizards all tried to come up with a way to stop the power of nature, but all of their ideas that first came to mind would've had little chance of getting them out of danger. There was no time for a second idea, as the wave crested over their ship, and silenced their distressed cries with a surging crash.

**- 0 -**

When Lucy awoke, the first thing she noticed was the pale sand underneath her. She slowly moved into a sitting position, groggily looking around to make sense of what happened and where she was. Apparently the wave had washed them onto a shore, as she could make out pieces of the white ferry scattered every which way. When she turned over her shoulder, she saw a still body in a green jacket lying a few feet behind her.

"Loke?" she asked, crawling over, her croaky voice no higher than a whisper. She gently shook the boy, but it wasn't until she lost some of her tentativeness and became rougher that he began to stir. He pulled himself to his knees with a slight groan, and rearranged his shades as he gave her a nod of thanks.

"If I was gonna get shipwrecked onto some island, couldn't I have been woken up by some mouth-to-mouth?" he muttered as he took in their surroundings. "Talk about a missed opportunity."

"I take it you're fine, then," Lucy chided, but couldn't help to smile despite herself. She then grew serious as she and Loke used each other as support to stand. "Where are the others? I really hope they're okay."

"Actually, we were all concerned about the two of you," a voice above them was heard. They looked up to find Erza in her Heaven's Wheel Armor, descending from the sky with her metallic wings slightly swaying. "I was the first to come to, and I took to the skies to survey the wreckage. Our boat's littered around the beach, but even though I wasn't able to wake the four of you, it seems we all made it out relatively fine. Cana and Gray recovered consciousness not too long ago; they're just down the way, collecting anything that could be of use to us."

Thanks to her extra protection, it was no wonder Erza had taken the least damage from the wave. Requipping back into her regular armor, she lead them to the other members of the team. Rummaging through the debris, Gray had found his jeans (his shirt remained unaccounted for), while Cana came up with a soggy piece of parchment.

"This was Bobo's map of Galuna Island," she said, sitting cross-legged before the open scroll. She had set two cards by the top and bottom, producing a single glowing dot on the northern corner of the isle. "I've pinpointed our location here. Pretty lucky that we somehow managed to land at the exact place we were going."

"The shipwreck trope at its most convenient," the blonde writer commented dryly as she brushed wet sand off her skin.

"Better than being stuck out at sea - or dead," Gray said. He looked over her shoulder at the map as he slid on his pants. "Looks like Bobo's old village is just through this forest. We should get a move on while we still have some sun left."

They were all in accordance with that plan. The sooner they could arrive at the village and speak to its chief about the mission, the sooner they could start and finish their work. The shipwreck had left them blacked out for most of the afternoon, as the sun's position in the cloudy sky signified night would fall soon. Lucy was quick to remember this was an S-Class job, but even without the curse they sought to break, she figured nighttime was no time to be wandering around in the forest.

A little after the sun vanished wholly under the horizon, the team made it to the large, sturdy gate outside of the lone village on Galuna Island. When they asked to be let in, the guards posted at the watchtowers up top demanded they prove they were the wizards that had accepted their request. After the five displayed their Fairy Tail marks in the torches' light, the doors were opened.

It seemed that all the citizens of the isle were present as they were lead to the center of their little town. Like Bobo before, certain aspects of their body were hidden by tribal cloaks, keeping their abnormalities from sight. There, a staff-wielding old man with no hair on his head other than sideburns that ran to his waist stepped forth, pronounced as the village chief.

"I am Moka," he introduced himself, bowing his already-hunched back at his guests, his people following his example. "I cannot express how much it joys us that after all this time, our wish to be freed of this wretched curse will finally come to pass."

"It is our honor to help," Erza said, leading the group in the same show of respect. "Now, if you could tell us more about this curse, I believe it will help us greatly in determining the cause, and figuring out a way to break it."

"The cause?" Moka practically shouted, pointing at the sky with his staff. "The cause is there! As soon as the clouds move aside, you will witness for yourselves the evil the moon casts on us!"

True to his words, as the clouds rolled over away from the moon, it illuminated the island under an ominous violet glow. Lucy and the others gasped at the sight, exactly as Cana's cards had foretold. They were even more shocked when their eyesight fell back to the ground, where the inhabitants of Galuna were undergoing a horrific transformation. Instead of just one body part, their entire humanity had left them, replaced by a demonic form, with cries ringing out not in pain, but in anger and despair at their fate.

"Now do you understand?" Moka asked solemnly, his skin now scaly and blue dotted with black. "We once considered the moonlight a gift from the heavens, as it enriched our lands with unparalleled results. We celebrated our bountiful harvests with a weekly feast in its honor! However, some time three years ago, its lovely glow became that horrid purple color, and every night since then, our appearances morph into the visions of hell you see before you now!"

"And you have no idea what caused the moon to change in the first place?" Gray asked. With the way some of the villagers continued to try to hide their disfigurements, he suddenly wished he had been wearing a shirt as to not appear to be flaunting his own unaffected body. He imagined Cana, in her bikini top, felt similarly. Still, he couldn't forget that there was a reason he was on the island to begin with, and perhaps it was the real source of the curse.

The chief shook his head. "We originally wanted to delude ourselves that this shapeshifting was some sort of medical epidemic, with no connection to the moon. We did not want to believe that after centuries of blessing us, it would do something of this maleficent nature to us. But all of the island doctors and others we consulted from the mainland all came to the same conclusion: this is the work of magic. The moon has forsaken us, and it is the catalyst for our agony! We implore you! Please, eradicate it from the sky!"

The team could sense that Erza's initial thoughts about the curse were likely correct. There was a deeper truth than what the village believed, but Moka was adamant in his proposed solution. After some negotiation, the five were able to convince him to at least them explore outside their isolated encampment to see what they could find. They were granted shelter in an unused bedroom, and as they figured out the spacing arrangements, they discussed what they could possibly discover. Not wanting to take any chances, however, they cautiously blocked off the windows to avoid exposure to the moonlight. The situation rested heavy on their minds as they laid to sleep, fighting against the images of the people's conditions behind their eyelids.

**- 0 -**

The next morning, after a breakfast provided by the owner of the house they were staying in, a kind girl named Lulu, the team departed the village to investigate. They cut through the forest on a path that hadn't appeared to have seen much use in recent times, wondering where it could lead them to.

"How come no one would tell us anything about what's outside the village?" Lucy pondered.

"They're way too superstitious," Cana noted. "These people believe that the moon they revered turned them into demons. If they're terrified about what's going on in their homes, they probably don't even wanna think about what's beyond their little settlement."

"To think that they kill anyone that doesn't revert back to human form when the sun comes up," Loke spat with disapproval at the shocking fact they'd learned overnight. "They owe it to the people that've lost their lives to this 'curse' to find out what's truly going on!"

"It is irresponsible of them, to say the least," Erza agreed, deep in thought about the details they'd been presented. Her intuition had been summarily bothered, allowing her to refrain from accepting any of them as concrete. "This is why we're here, though, to uncover the answers they are afraid to seek themselves."

Gray remained mostly silent as they explored for the next few hours. Something from his past was connected to the despair of the villagers, but what? As far as he knew, nothing from his homeland in the north of Fiore placed great importance on the moon like the tropical Galuna did. And just about everyone he'd known as a young boy, before his admission into Fairy Tail, was dead. Nothing had yet to make sense; what was the common factor between the two?

His group slowed to a stop, snapping him back to reality. A huge pyramid had come into view over the treetops, weathered into ruin and covered by wild roots and shrub. Looking at one another, they knew they'd found a potential lead.

"This place is ancient," Lucy observed as they made their way inside after trekking for another half hour. She was careful to avoid disturbing the rubble on the floor, old pieces of collapsed ceiling. "Can I just say this doesn't seem very safe?"

"The architecture appears to be sound," Erza said, looking around at the designs on the walls. As she stepped into the center of the room, a foreboding crack echoed throughout the vast building. She paused immediately, the others following suit. At the first exhale - no one was sure who it was - fissures appeared beneath her boot, splitting the floor into a wide hole that swallowed up all five mages.

They fell for hundreds of feet, the ground below them coming up rapidly despite the distance. With quick thinking, this time someone was able to find a way to avoid the impending disaster. "Orbit!" Loke cried, his ring glowing as he pointed it upwards. A great ball of golden light appeared above them, slowing their momentum with an artificial gravitational pull, until they remained suspended a yard off the floor. He released the spell, the star vanishing to allow an easy, safe drop.

"You were saying?" Gray asked Erza flatly as the girls rearranged their hair out of their faces.

"I was wrong. It happens," their leader admitted casually. They looked around their new surroundings, a dark cave of sorts. After considering which way to go, she took point, hoping that, whether they were going in deeper or walking towards an exit, they would be lead to something substantial.

"Is it just me, or is it getting colder?" Loke asked, pulling his jacket closer to himself. He didn't think that would've been an issue out on this island.

From the way Lucy and Cana were holding their arms together, he knew it wasn't just him. Erza nodded, even though she powered on like normal. Gray, who naturall, should've been right at home with the low temperature, instead frowned in discomfort. "Something doesn't feel right..." he murmured.

Erza went around a corner, but had stopped, almost causing a pile-up as the others followed the turn. Before they could ask what or why, they realized it for themselves. They had entered a huge lair, with a colossal iceberg sitting in a partially-dug hole. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that something was trapped inside the frozen mountain, something with titanic fangs and ferocious claws. Something clearly wicked.

"No way..." Gray whispered, unable to believe his widened eyes. He limply fell to his knees, but couldn't tear his gaze away from the monster encased in the ice. "How's this possible...?"

"Gray?" Lucy asked gently. She and Cana worriedly knelt beside him, gripping his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"Is that... Deliora?" the brunette asked, almost afraid to speak the name. Gray, after a moment of being unresponsive, slowly nodded his head once, prompting her to hold him even tighter.

"What the hell is this?!" he shouted, his shock quickly becoming fury. He climbed back to his feet, forcing away the girls' touch as he balled his fists. "Why is Deliora here?!"

"Gray," Erza intoned, but her concern was evident. "Please, calm down," she continued, softer this time. It didn't seem like her words reached him at first, but aside from slight shaking, he regained his composure eventually. "Now, could tell us what that thing is?"

He shared a look with Cana, the only other person in the guild who knew his story. After she gave him an encouraging nod, he sighed in consent. "That's Deliora, the 'Demon of Destruction'," he began to explain, his hair covering his eyes. "Ten years ago, that thing terrorized the northern areas of the country. When it came to my home in Isvan, it obliterated the entire city. Somehow, I managed to avoid being killed... but I was the only one. There were no other survivors after the attack. I was found by a woman named Ur, an extremely powerful Ice-Make Wizard, who took me in and trained me with her other student, a boy named Lyon, in her arts.

"I studied with Ur for about a year, and looking back, I guess a part of me was actually happy for that period. But I didn't notice it at the time, because the other part of me, was angry and vengeful. I'd sworn to one day kill Deliora for what it did to me, and nothing else mattered. I heard from some people passing by that Deliora was near, but even though I knew deep down that Ur hadn't made me strong enough to finish my vendetta yet, I went after it anyway. Ur and Lyon tried to make me see reason, but I was too consumed with hatred to understand that a kid like me, trying to take on that demon, would be like throwing myself into my own grave.

"I didn't get it until I was face-to-face with Deliora again. At some point, I lost consciousness, but when I woke up, I saw Ur protecting me and Lyon. They'd managed to follow me and tried to get me away from that monster. When Lyon was also knocked unconscious, Ur knew it would be impossible to fight while having to defend the both of us at the same time. So she smiled at me, and told me that she had been so happy to have two amazing pupils... and that she would let me find my own happiness by taking away my darkness. She used a spell called Iced Shell on Deliora, sealing it in that unmeltable ice... at the cost of her own life. Her body is the ice that keeps Deliora locked away from hurting anyone else. She paid the ultimate price... because of me."

Lucy didn't realize the tears streaming down her cheeks until she noticed Gray' and Cana's. The boy's pain and emotion had been too much for him to suppress any longer, and it resonated with the two of them. Loke ambiguously fidgeted with his glasses, but while no beads ran down Erza's face, she was just as moved. Her armor vanished, leaving her in a sleeveless white blouse. Without the cold metal to divide them, she pulled Gray into a warm, heartfelt hug.

"Thank you for being strong," she whispered, only for him to hear. She released him after a final squeeze, then looked back at the rest of the team. Whatever she originally wanted to say, however, was disrupted when she picked up a faint rhythm of steps growing closer. "Someone's coming," she said in a low voice, brows furrowed.

Now the others caught sound of people in motion, heading their way. "We should hide," Cana practically mouthed. At the suggestion, they all ducked behind a large rock protrusion to their right, settling in just before a pair of men emerged from a corridor to the left of the one they had entered the cavern from.

"Are you sure you heard screams down here?" a short man with spiked-up blue hair and distinctly-sized eyebrows asked irritably. "Just because you like to wear those weird dog decorations on your face doesn't mean you suddenly have the senses of one."

"Hey, I look totally cool!" the other shrieked defensively. While his tall, lanky body was unmistakably human, his visage oddly resembled a canine's - apparently by design. "And yes, I'm positive I heard something!"

The first man sighed. "Well, there's no one around. If anyone found the tunnels, they probably didn't end up down here in the lair."

"You shouldn't be so sure of that," a new figure appeared from the entryway across from them, the same route the Fairy Tail wizards had used. The voice belonged to an attractive pink-haired girl with a sad expression. "There was a collapse on the first floor, leading to this entrance. There weren't any bodies among the rubble, but there were signs of living beings. To survive a fall like that, they must have been protected by _love_." She blushed and clasped her hands together at her last word, giving the team creepy vibes.

"Well it's all clear on this end," the short man gestured as the girl regrouped with her cohorts. "I know the Cold Emperor's on edge because of the Moon Drip finally being completed tonight or tomorrow, but he really shouldn't have gotten so worked up when Toby mentioned yelling coming from the temple. It was probably just some adventurous natives that left the village, fell down here, and ran right out when they saw the demon. Nothing to worry about."

The trio retreated into the same tunnel the men had come from. The guild wizards returned to the open a few seconds later, Lucy thoroughly confused by the outsiders' reaction. "So they came all the way down here looking for us, and then they don't bother to check behind the most obvious hiding spot?"

"They never expected that anyone would find this place," Gray waved it off, still frowning at their situation. "I'm more concerned about what they were talking about. 'The Cold Emperor'? 'Moon Drip'? What's that all mean?"

"You think it might have something to do with what's happening to the villagers?" Loke surmised. "It was clear those guys weren't from around these parts, and from the sound of it, they're up to something big."

"Should we follow them and find out?" Cana asked their leader, hinting at the potential of combat.

Erza Requipped back into her Heart Kreuz armor. "I don't believe we'll be getting any answers by staying put."

"Actually," Lucy spoke up, hoping she hadn't just undercut the strongest woman in Fairy Tail, "I think one of my spirits could help us out. He's really knowledgeable on all kinds of stuff. Whenever I need to look something up, he's always come through for me."

Loke was startled by her suggestion, but kept quiet as Erza nodded, seeming impressed with her resourcefulness.

"Open, Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!" the blonde said, lifting one of her Silver Keys. A floating anthropomorphic cross appeared in front of them, slightly bobbing in the air with a sleepy look on his face. "Hey, Crux, I was wondering if you knew what 'Moon Drip' is." Crux grunted in response, then suddenly drifted into slumber. Before any of her teammates could complain about what his deal was, she explained that was just how he researched for information.

"Ah!" the spirit awoke with a cry, seemingly still drowsy. "Moon Drip is an incredibly advanced type of Dispelling Magic," he began. "It harnesses the moon's light and focuses it into a brilliant beam, able to nullify even the most powerful magic seals."

Gray's face painted pale in horror. "Even... Iced Shell?" he choked out.

"There have been no recorded exceptions to the spell," Crux replied.

"So that's why they brought Deliora here," Cana said in realization. "The villagers said that on Galuna Island, the moonlight is already extremely reactive. If those guys were trying to focus it to melt the unmeltable ice, then of course you'd wanna go to where you can get a natural boost in strength."

"Is there anything else we should know about this spell?" Erza asked.

Crux nodded, but might've nodded off for a brief instant. "Overexposure to the moon's energy may have side-effects," he reported. "Utilizing Moon Drip contaminates and crystallizes in the air. The results of these side-effects vary in species, but humans have been documented as being immune."

"Immune?" the redhead repeated with a frown.

"Why would anyone want to free Deliora?! Don't they know what it's capable of?" Gray demanded aloud.

"That's probably exactly _why_ they wanna release it," Loke answered, no longer trying to stay in the background now that Lucy had recalled Crux. "They said that the Moon Drip would be finished either tonight or tomorrow, which means we're gonna have to stop them from using it again."

Cana materialized a card, turning it over so the others could take a look at the wind-up clock it displayed. "It's about to be 4 in the afternoon. That gives us a few more hours before the sun sets and they can activate their spell."

Erza nodded, walking up to the tunnel used by the two men from before to signify their next move. Shortly after, they came to a steep staircase, the ascension of which seemed never-ending as they made their way back up to ground level. Lucy struggled to keep up with the endurance of the veteran wizards. She was last in line to begin with, but the longer they climbed, the more her legs burned, and the wider the gap between her and Loke grew.

She hid her panting as they finally made it to the end of the stairs. From the opening across the room, they could see that even though they were in a different section of the temple, they had returned to the first floor. Unfortunately, they also noticed the sky bleeding an orange that encroached over the horizon.

"What the hell? Why's the sun setting so early?" Cana demanded. She hadn't had to adjust her clock, as Galuna Island was in the same timezone as the rest of Fiore. It was ludicrous for the sky to be turning dark at just this hour, especially during the summer.

"It's gotta be because of the way the moon behaves on Galuna," Lucy extrapolated from the facts she knew of the isle. "When we got here yesterday, the sun was close to setting. We didn't check the time then, but didn't you guys also get the feeling that when night fell, it lasted longer than it normally should've? It seems that thanks to the relationship between the two, the moon makes days shorter on this island."

Erza spotted the next flight of stairs along the far wall, presumably going all the way to the top of the building. Figuring the small distraction had provided enough of a breather, she started for the arched doorway. "Then we'll have to hurry to stop their ritual."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we flew up or something, instead of dragging our feet up another staircase?" Loke asked with a bit of a whine. He'd noticed Lucy's difficulties, but didn't want to single her out. He willingly took the heat for her, and he made sure she knew with a smirk directed away from Erza. The blonde smiled in appreciation.

"I would agree - if we were all capable of flight," the S-Class girl responded. As far as she knew, she was the only one with such an ability on the team.

"Flying's not the only way up," Gray stated with a hard tone as he began to make his way back outside. Trusting in his determination, they followed him to the entrance of the temple, where he ordered them to stand huddled close. From the front of the pack, he measured the altitude of the building for a second, then dropped to a knee. He put his hands together, releasing a cold mist, then placed them on the ground. "Hold on tight! Ice-Make Elevator!"

A large magic circle appeared around them, then a pillar of ice shot them upwards with great velocity. In almost no time at all, they found they edge of the pyramid's last rectangular section was just a simple hop off their frozen platform. On the roof, they found a horde of druids in robes and masks circling around a ritual sight in preparation for the moon's full appearance. Among them were the three people that had been looking for them in the demon's cave, as well as two other masked figures. The crouched one was garbed in voodoo-inspired attire, while the other carried an air of regality with his shiny helm, stern jaw, and sweeping cape.

"So you're the ones trying to resurrect Deliora," the dark-haired boy accused, drawing the entire group's attention as he lead his team forward. "That monster killed thousands, and you wanna let it roam the earth again? Just what do think you're playing at, _Cold Emperor_?" he spat, staring daggers at the caped man.

The three from before protectively surrounded the man, whose mouth indicated shock at the intruders. "See? I told you I heard voices!" the dog-faced individual said, somehow angry and excited at the same time.

"I'd already conceded that people had been down there," the shortest of the trio replied with a frown, spotting their matching tattoos. "I didn't think it'd be guild wizards, though. Seems like the villagers must've asked for help."

"I cannot love anyone that opposes the Cold Emperor," the girl decreed, blushing once more.

"Well, this sure is a twist," the crouching mask said with an amused smirk. Somehow, Erza knew she was the target of his hidden gaze.

Having gotten over his surprise, the ringleader of their operation stepped past his subordinates, holding up a hand to keep them at bay. "I'm quite aware of Deliora's strength; I've witnessed its destruction first-hand," he spoke, his voice aloof and near emotionless as he slowly pulled off his helm. "It took my whole world from me, just as it did to you, _Gray._"

Nearly a decade had passed since he'd last seen him, but the spiky silvery-blue hair and slanted eyes were unmistakable. "But... how?" Gray stammered. "Why would you do this... Lyon?"

Now it was time for Lucy and the others to be shocked. Gray's childhood friend, the same boy he'd trained with under Ur, was the mastermind?

"Why?" Lyon echoed coolly, gripping his ceremonial mask tightly. "You know exactly why, Gray. Don't you remember what my dream was? The goal I aspired to when we were younger?"

Gray swallowed as his old rival's motives became clear. "You always wanted to be stronger than Ur."

"Yes. But that dream died along with her when she gave her life trying to protect you!" he said, throwing his helmet off to the side, to bounce down the walls of the temple. "At least, that's what I believed at first. For a year, I researched for a way to save her from being the icy prison around Deliora, but I found nothing - until I came across a spell called Moon Drip. When I learned of its power, I realized that there _was_ a way for me to surpass the master I adored: I could use Moon Drip to free Deliora, and kill the monster that not even Ur had been able to outright defeat!"

"You're insane!" Cana yelled at his warped logic. Having felt the weight of her closest friend's history for so long, the cut she felt at the reasoning was nearest to his. "Your master sacrificed herself so the two of you could live, and you're willing to destroy that legacy for the sake of your own ego? That's pathetic!"

Lyon shifted his stare towards the brunette momentarily, before broadening to all of the wizards. "For the longest time, I've waited for the day I could call myself the superior prodigy of a woman strong enough join the ranks of the Ten Wizard Saints. The day to prove my power is finally here, and I won't have the boy who forced me onto this haunting path, or his friends, stand in my way." He turned his head slightly to address his group of acolytes. "For three years now, we have left the natives of this island alone, and they us. I'd hoped for a peaceful ending to the Moon Drip, but now that they've involved themselves and brought in outsiders, they must be dealt with accordingly. Yuka, Toby, Sherry, Zalty. Head down to the village, and wipe them out."

Erza snarled at his order. "We'll never allow you to commit such an atrocity!" she declared, Requipping into her Heaven's Wheel Armor. She leapt into the air, bulleting straight at their enemies with twin blades at the ready.

The sole girl, Sherry, held up a hand and cast a spell. Erza anticipated a direct attack, but instead, found that the pieces of the broken pillars around the ritual sight began to combine to form a large, humanoid form. With incredible reaction time, she managed to barrel through the chest of the stone frame, but also right into a transparent bubble created by the blue-haired individual, Yuka. As she cried in pain, she appeared to shimmer within its confines for a second, before her magical armor disappeared, leaving her in just her normal clothing. Caught off-guard at the loss of her weaponry, she was unable to entirely avoid Toby the dog-man's subsequent slash, clawing at her exposed right shoulder with his long green nails.

Instantly, the S-Class Wizard recognized the feeling of paralysis spreading from her wound, overtaking her being. She dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, unable to move any part of her to reassure her gasping teammates. She felt the hurried steps of Lyon's servants as they rushed off to fulfill his command, while his metal boots drew closer to her immobile body.

"If you do not leave right now, this woman will die," he sneered. "I'll give you this opportunity to stand down. Be grateful I'm offering this much."

"No!" Gray shouted, balling his fists. "I'm not gonna let you get away with any of this! Cana, you guys go and stop the others from hurting the villagers! I'll take care of Erza and deal with Lyon!" Snapping out of seeing their leader fall, Cana nodded, guiding Loke and Lucy along the same route taken by Lyon's four henchmen. Gray roared as he put his hands together, activating his powers. "Ice-Make Lance!" A bevy of frozen spears launched from his point of connection. While he didn't strike Lyon, he did manage to steer him away from Erza. He quickly ran in between the two, protecting her from any more harm.

"You were always the lesser of Ur's students," Lyon proclaimed with tranquil rage. "Do you really think that after all these years, you're a match for me?" He raised a single misting hand, eyes narrowing as he took aim at Gray. "Ice-Make Eagle!" His winged ice attack flurried at the dark-haired boy with malicious intent, but he had been waiting to counter.

"Ice-Make Shield!" Gray said, putting up a fan-like ice barrier to stop Lyon's birds. From behind his shield, however, he was shocked to see them effortlessly change their trajectory mid-flight, soaring over his defenses to then collide against him when the living ice doubled back. He felt pain all over his body, but as he struggled to get back up, he was at least glad that none of those birds had gone after Erza. She was still lying on the ground, not having moved at all since she'd been struck.

"Understand now?" the Cold Emperor mocked. "I have perfected Dynamic Ice-Make Magic, and I can cast my spells with one hand. You have no hope against me if you're still using the slower two-handed method."

"That's because Ur said... one-handed casting is unstable," Gray staggered, clutching his right side. "It might be faster, but you can't depend on it. It could cost you at the worst moment."

Lyon grinned. "Don't doubt my abilities. I'm powerful enough to kill Deliora now." He motioned to the druids gathered around the center of the ritual sight, beginning to chant as the sky grew darker and darker. "If you want, I could let you watch. Not even _your_ presence could ruin this moment for me."

"This isn't happening!" Gray insisted. "Ice-Make Hammer!"

"Ice-Make Ape!" Lyon fired back. Despite Gray casting first, Lyon's faster one-handed technique materialized his attack at the same time. His simian caught Gray's large falling hammer by the handle, then flung it back at its owner. The large block of ice shattered as it crashed into him, leaving him vulnerable to a follow-up. "Ice-Make Snow Dragon!" A large, serpentine dragon slithered towards Gray, ramming him upwards with its full weight.

The force sent him airborne for several feet, only for him to land onto the pyramid's ancient stone with a gruesome thud. His eyes began to almost completely shut as he veered to the edge of consciousness. An image of a lovely, concerned-looking woman looking over him flickered briefly against the darkness.

"I gave you the chance to save yourself and your friends, but you foolishly chose to face me," the silver-haired young man said, meticulously making his way towards where Gray had fallen. "You still haven't learned that your recklessness has consequences that those close to you also have to suffer. You haven't changed at all."

"Wait..." a faint, feminine voice called to him. Erza shakily rose to her feet, fighting against the weakening paralysis. She hadn't yet been able to tap into her magic, so she remained armorless as she defiantly placed herself in front of Gray. He'd been her ward when she was down, now she'd do the same for him. "You can't continue with this plan."

"Oh? And will you stop me?" Lyon asked, crossing his arms. "You must be very powerful if Toby's paralyzing effects are wearing off so soon, but you're still in no condition to fight me to save Gray. But perhaps you can understand reason better than he can. I've expended more energy than I wanted to already, and I'd hate to use up even more before fighting Deliora, so I'll allow you to leave with Gray right now. I don't know what will become of your other friends, but at the very least, you two can escape with your lives."

Erza glared at him, but she knew he had too many valid points to ignore; a tactical retreat was her best recourse. She took Gray's arm around her shoulders and helped him up. He was clearly out of it, but he seemed to have the presence of mind to not be complete dead weight. She looked back at Lyon, his victorious grin inciting her even more. "This isn't over," she vowed. She knew she could've provoked him into taking a shot at them, but he only continued to smirk as he watched them saunter off.

* * *

><p><em>So how was that? Natsu who, right? I kid, I love the guy, but I also loved getting to use some of the side characters for primary purposes. In any case, if you're feeling like something else was missing, I decided to omit Angela, Sherry's giant pet rat. Seemed like something I could trim to keep this arc at three chapters, so yes, the next part will be the finale of Galuna Island! Be prepared for an even longer chapter than this, full of awesome battles and drama, all the stuff you want from Fairy Tail! <em>

_Also, there'll be an update to AI Sidestories, as well! The latest edition there features Lucy and Cana going on fun little job together! Don't forget to check it out!_

_Anyway, thanks for reading, I do hope you enjoyed. If you're looking for your good deed for the day, you can always drop a review! It certainly counts._


	10. Galuna Island Arc - Part 3

_And we've made it to double-digit chapters! Thanks for reading along so far, and as a reward, I'll happily give you __the awesome ending to the Galuna Island saga! Enjoy the battles!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<br>- Love Like Winter -**

Lucy, Cana, and Loke pushed themselves to erase the head start Lyon's servants had as they raced through the forest towards the village. Tucked away behind the temple had been a garage for Magic Vehicles they had been using to move around the isle. Just as Sherry, Yuka and Toby had done, they climbed into single-person cycles, strapping on the draining SE Plugs to their wrists to remain in pursuit. They'd managed to keep them in their sights without burning too much of their energy, but the darkness was beginning to obscure them as the sun was almost entirely under the horizon. They could only hope Galuna's legendary moonlight would help them out, even as it aided the Cold Emperor's plans.

"I think they're splitting up!" Loke said. How he was able to distinguish their lessening numbers with his shades on, the girls didn't know, but as they squinted through the last light, they could see he was right. Yuka careened off the path to the left, while Sherry and Toby kept on the trail. Zalty, the man in the mask, had vanished altogether before the acquisition of their rides.

"You guys go after those two! I'll follow Eyebrows!" Cana directed. Before Loke could suggest she be the one to fight alongside Lucy and her spirits instead, the brunette had already slipped into the maze of trees in hot pursuit.

"Don't let me down, Loke!" Lucy called, unable to help a smile as adrenaline surged throughout her body. Despite the danger, or probably even because of it, it was a rush to be on the precipice of combat once again. She was getting used to being a Fairy Tail wizard.

"I'm not sure we're gonna be staying together for too long," Loke spoke up with audible relief as Toby and Sherry started going their own ways. The young lady was making a beeline for the village, but the man with the dog decorations veered off to the right. "Got your sights set on one of them in particular?"

"You already know how this stuff works," the blonde flashed him a grin. Loke nodded in return with a smirk of his own, swerving on his bike to stay on the pawed degenerate's tail.

**- 0 -**

"Are you feeling any better, Gray?" Erza asked as he came to, tearing off bandages from the roll after taping up his forehead. His abdomen and shoulders had already been wrapped, leaving just his forearm to care for.

"I'm fine," he said through his teeth, although his pained quivering told a different story as he tried to lift himself up from the tree he sat against. Looking at his surroundings as he was treated, he saw that they were back on ground level, just outside the clearing around the pyramid. Turning his gaze to the full night sky, he saw a great purple beam, seemingly descending from the moon itself, striking the top of the temple.

"That must be the Moon Drip," Erza told him apologetically. "They've begun their ritual. If only I hadn't been so careless, I could've prevented this from happening."

"You got hit with some cheap move," Gray tried to console her. "What's important now is that I get back up there and stop Lyon before he finishes it."

"No," Erza said flatly. "You're too injured to face him again right now. I've recovered from the paralysis completely, so I'll -"

She was cut off by how strongly he rose to his feet after being refused. "_I'm_ gonna be the one to end all this," he growled in a low voice, allowing no arguments over the matter. "This is _my_ responsibility."

The redhead looked up at him before standing up to meet his eyes on the same level. She could've resolved everything by knocking him back out and going after Lyon herself, and she was incredibly tempted to, but the determination in Gray's eyes held the promise that he would not lose. Even against her better judgment, she could not deny an iron will like that, even if the body carrying it was battered to his state.

"Very well," she agreed, inclining her head slightly. "I'll help Cana and the others in protecting the village. Please, don't get yourself killed."

Gray nodded back. Without a word, he shrugged past her as he limped back to the temple. Erza spared him one last look, before taking off to head in the opposite direction.

**- 0 -**

Lucy looked in horror as she came up to the village's gate a few minutes after her team had diverged. The once-sturdy wall had a splintered gap where the swinging openings used to be, just the first sign of destruction. As she entered its borders, she could hear the screams of its inhabitants. Stepping off her bike, she saw them running away in fear, already transfigured to their demon forms as they tried to get away from the wooden monster that smashed their homes.

"Stop that!" she cried out to Sherry, who stood by the creature she manipulated with a sorrowful pout. The pink-haired girl turned to her, her wooden familiar pausing at the interruption. "How can you do this to these poor people? They've suffered enough because of you guys!"

Sherry looked away in shame. "I don't know what's going on with them," she said, never having witnessed the alleged curse of the island with her own eyes, "but don't think I take joy in this. I'm only doing it for the Cold Emperor's love."

"Love? A real love would never ask that you hurt others like you're doing now!" Lucy argued. "Just look around and you'll see that what Lyon's doing is completely wrong!"

An expression of fury came over Sherry at the disrespectful tone the blonde had used in speaking of her beloved. "This is necessary so our nightmares can end!" She pointed at the blonde, siccing her magical beast on her. "We do this so we can love our lives again! Wood Doll!"

Letting out a roar, the monster made of the gates began to charge at Lucy, raising its long limb to strike. She rolled away from the branch just before it hit the ground, her hand already flipping open the new keycase she'd purchased for her ever-expanding collection. With more ease than her old ring could allow, she pulled the one she felt was the most suitable for the job. "Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"

The illumination cast by her spell threw Sherry off, as she was blinded momentarily. Then she realized how advantageous this battle had become for her.

"Need some help choppin' down this tree, Miss Lucy?" Taurus asked with a grin as he grasped his poleaxe. He lunged at the Wood Doll, weapon reared back. Bellowing out a moo, he sliced through the middle of the enemy's trunk, bifurcating it with a single mighty swing. The lifeless remains toppled to the ground, as Lucy refused Taurus's request for a kiss on the cheek. She wasn't willing to give him any more than a high-five, which he gladly accepted.

"You're celebrating after you've done _me_ a favor?" Sherry asked darkly, raising her hand at Taurus. "That's such a strong Celestial Spirit you've summoned. He's perfect."

Before Lucy could ask what she meant, she felt a powerful blow to the stomach that sent her a few feet back. As she gasped for air on her knees, clutching at her ribs, she managed to look up as a scared Taurus slowly came up to her, holding on to the staff portion of his axe that he'd used to club his master with. "Taurus...? What're you...?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Lucy!" he apologized, appearing beside himself as he stalked her. "Something's controlling me... I'm not _moooving_ on my own!" With shaking arms, he raised his axe ominously over the girl's doubled-over figure.

She barely managed to throw herself out of the way as the blade came down. Sparks flickered as it struck the rocky terrain. Lucy, as fast as her aching midsection allowed, staggered to a safe distance. "What've you done to Taurus?" she demanded of Sherry, who calmly stepped beside her contracted partner.

"My Doll Magic allows me to fill any non-human object I see with _love_," she replied with a blissful blush. "Their actions will synchronize with my desires. If I so wished for your friend here to make use of his axe on you, he will have no choice but to play along."

As Taurus was obligated to swing heedlessly at his master, despite the self-loathing on his face, Lucy tried to get him to return to the Celestial World. However, her attempts proved futile. "How come I can't close your gate?" she asked, pointing his Gold Key at him as she ducked under a horizontal swipe.

"Because I'm afraid I'm not done with my new doll yet," Sherry smirked. "So long as I'm pulling the strings, he won't be going anywhere unless I say so."

Lucy frowned. Normally, if master and spirit both agreed to close the gate to the human world, they would return to theirs. Given Taurus's reaction to their predicament, it seemed they were in accordance, but somehow their connection was being overruled by the villainous girl. As the giant bull toppled a villager's home, Lucy remembered being able to cut Virgo's stay in her dimension without her knowing. How had she managed that in that moment?

The pricks of the gravel sticking to her skin seemed to help clear her mind after she dove to the ground. At the time, Virgo had been in danger, and returning her had been a reflex on Lucy's part. She now understood that it was due to concern for her spirit that she could forcibly close their gates. She'd been thinking about her own well-being, instead of empathizing with Taurus on the turmoil he felt over what he was being possessed to do. With unshaking resolve, she stood up to the bull, well within his range as he lifted his axe over his head. The key that she aimed at his chest glowed brilliantly, and a second later, he disappeared in a flash as well.

"What?" Sherry asked in disbelief. "How were you able to recall him over my magic?"

"With love!" Lucy taunted, making a break for the center of the portion of the town that had already been crushed. She leapt over the piles of rubble, grabbing at the next key she'd be using. When she searched for a way to counter her opponent's spells, she found the solution to be quite simple; this spirit, under her control or otherwise, only had one response to being called forth.

"Running away is pointless!" Sherry called, commanding the broken pieces of rock around her to assemble into another of her dolls. This one was much bigger than her wooden one, and its head even featured a hollow area for her to ride along in. She laughed as she nearly trampled Lucy as she followed her through the wreckage, until she came to a complete stop by a well that had remained partially intact.

"You thought I was running away?" Lucy asked with a smirk as she held another Golden Key over the well. "I was just putting you in the exact position I needed you to be - like a good little puppet." The furious Sherry spared a second to look around her, noticing nothing but the wasteland of destroyed buildings, and the village's gate at her back. Her eyes widened as she realized why she'd been lead to this desolate corner, just as Lucy dropped her key. After the audible plop of it landing in the water, her smile grew even more. "Open, Gate of the Water Bearer! Aquarius!"

The effect was instantaneous. A geyser erupted from the well, along with a raging shriek. From out of the pillar of water emerged an aggravated blue-tailed mermaid, holding on to an urn that overflowed with its contents. "You stupid girl! What the hell do you think you're doing, throwing my key into a well?!" Before Sherry could activate her magic on her, Aquarius had already unleashed a great wave from her urn, directed at Lucy but encompassing the whole area.

Lucy braced herself for the tide, taking hold of the edge of the well, but the strong pressure still tolled her for using the ace up her sleeve. When the water subsided and Aquarius huffed herself back to the Celestial World, she was left in a coughing fit when she noticed a golden glimmer through her straggled bangs. She smiled through the pain as she picked up her key stuck in the muck, but it quickly disappeared when she heard the condescending laughter.

"You must be really desperate to try something like that," Sherry sneered from atop a new Mud Doll. She wasn't drenched like Lucy, but her outfit was stained with grimy dark spots. The blonde figured she sacrificed her Rock Doll to the wave but dodged it herself by having it launch her high in the air over it, only to be caught by the monster made of liquefied dirt. "It's too bad you only managed to hurt yourself with that move - and I didn't even have to make your spirit do it."

Despair washed over Lucy like Aquarius's attack. Summoning her was supposed to have been her decisive blow. Now she stared up at the Mud Doll, dripping sludge with every step it took closer to her, with hardly any magical power left in her. But if this was going to be her final moments, she'd address Sherry for the harsh use of her abilities. "Even if my Celestial Spirits aren't human, they still have feelings. You have no right to force them to do your cruel bidding," she said, voice low. "They're not dolls; their hearts are their own, and you'll never be able to take that away from them. They'll fight and resist you to the end, and I'll do the same for them, because that's what real love is."

Sherry frowned with a conflicted blush. "Love is a beautiful thing, isn't it?" she asked as her familiar poised to strike. But just before it could make any further movements, a burst of light slashed through it from behind. The arm that had been ready to attack plopped to the ground, while the upper half of its body began to slide down over where it had been cut. Sherry tumbled from her spot on its head, falling face-first into its soggy remains. Wiping the mud away from her eyes, she looked behind her to see a young man sliding his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the ring on his index finger glowing with extreme brilliance.

"Yes. It is," Loke agreed with a slight nod.

Sherry squinted at him for a moment, perplexed. Was she just in a daze from her fall, or was that boy actually susceptible to her magic?

"Hey! Over here!" Lucy chided as she rushed towards the pink-haired girl. She whisked her attention back to her, and tried to intercept her charge with a clothesline, but Lucy ducked underneath, catching her arm around Sherry's waist. With help from the slick ground, she easily pivoted to lock her hands together. The hold set, she lifted Sherry off her feet with a cry, planting her with a mud-splattering bridging suplex.

Lucy picked herself up, keeping an eye on the girl. It seemed that Sherry had been knocked out by the impact of being driven into the ground, but she didn't want to presume her victory so fast this time. She cautiously prodded her, but she was down for the count. Relieved at having pulled out the win, she turned to Loke, who approached her with a tiny smirk on his face.

"Thanks for the save," she said, choosing not to hide her own smile.

"Anytime," he answered suavely. "That dog guy did a nice job of taking himself out with his own paralyzing claws, so I thought I'd come over and lend a hand. If you could've dragged out the mud wrestling for a little longer, though, that would've been nice."

Lucy's witty comeback never got past her lips as they heard sobbing nearby. Sharing a look, the two wizards investigated the sound, following it to a small fenced area filled with stone grave markers. The village chief, Moka, knelt before a wrecked monument, gripping broken pieces of the slab as tears ran down his scaly face. Flying debris from Sherry's attack had violated the sacred ground, taking out a number of headstones.

After he caught sound of their footsteps drawing near, he turned to them with bloodshot eyes. "This was where we buried the unfortunate souls that weren't able to fight the curse's transformation," he explained quietly. "My son was among them. I myself plunged the knife into his chest to end his suffering, and I'd sworn that I would protect his memory from any more evil." Moka held up the rock shards that had been crushed off his son's marker. "Forgive me for having failed you again, Bobo."

The name caused Lucy and Loke to exchange a confused glance. Bobo? Like the sailor that had brought them to Galuna Island? That had mysteriously disappeared just before an angry wave struck their ship - as if he'd never been there at all?

"We're really sorry," Lucy offered her condolences. They placed their hands on his shoulders, helping alleviate some of his crying. "After this is all over, we'll help you rebuild your village. That's a promise." She looked at Loke, hoping that he wouldn't be mad with the guarantee she'd made. She was relieved to see a gentle smile on his face, indicating that he didn't mind being spoken for at all.

If it's what Lucy wanted, then he'd already promised to help.

**- 0 -**

Cana powered out of the thicket of forestry, and saw that her chase of Yuka had come to its close. The short man grinned at her from the opposite side of the clearing she'd emerged into, just on the outer limits bordering the village.

"Here's the deal, Fairy Tail girl," he said, quite arrogantly as she abandoned her cycle. "Going after a helpless tribe, even if it's a direct order from the Cold Emperor himself, isn't something I have much interest in, so I'll just let the others handle that." As if on cue, the two felt rumbling within the town, causing his smirk to creep larger on his face. "If I'm gonna be getting my hands dirty, I'd much rather take on someone who can at least put up a fight."

Despite the severity of what Lyon's plans entailed, Cana smiled at the challenge. "You probably shouldn't be too happy that I was the one that followed you here," she said, materializing a card in her hand. She threw it forward as it began to glow, shortly after which it became a blazing-white beam of fire aimed straight for Yuka. "Overheat!"

The man with the prominent eyebrows calmly flashed a series of hand signals, casting a blue field around him. Cana's attack, one of her strongest single cards, dissipated into harmless embers as it came into contact with the barrier. She frowned at this, but didn't seem to lose any of her nerve as he chuckled in amusement. "You don't seem all that surprised that your magic didn't work on me. Have you figured out what it is I can do?"

"You're some kind of dispeller," Cana stated coolly. "I saw what you did to Erza's armor before."

"Correct," Yuka nodded, pleased at the recognition. "I'm a master of Wave Magic. No spells can pass through the extreme vibrations I create with my Waves, not even those of an S-Class Wizard's. All mages are powerless before me!"

The brunette smiled at his claim. Of course he would boast he had the ultimate defense against magic, but there had to be some kind of weakness to his abilities. She studied him closely, trying to figure what it was she could exploit. The obvious strategy would be to engage him in physical combat, but she doubted the answer was that easy. Given the nature of his powers, as well as the martial arts-inspired style of his clothes, it wasn't unlikely to think Yuka was proficient at going hand-to-hand. She decided to further experiment with his Waves, and held out another shining card between her fingers. "Gravity Bind!"

A magic circle appeared underneath Yuka. This time, Cana's spell to control the Earth's pull magnified its strength, crippling him under his own weight as he was pressed against the ground. For a second she thought she might've had him already, but then she noticed his hindered movements. With great strain showing on his face, he slowly performed more hand signals. A stubborn yell later, and Cana's circle shattered as another of his Waves enveloped over its periphery.

He picked himself up with a groan, his visage looking tired and agitated as opposed to displaying the cockiness from before. It seemed that he was finally going to stop taking her lightly. "You know, my magic isn't purely defensive!" he shouted, encasing his fists with blue-tinted bubbles. "Wave Bullet!" He fired off a series of projectiles at Cana, the distortions audibly rippling through the air as they flew towards her.

"Mirror Force!" she shouted, activating a new card. She had taken a gamble, opting to test if she could reflect his own attack back at him instead of outright dodging. It paid off, as his Wave Bullets bounced off the invisible shields around her with a gleam. However, just before they could strike at their original caster, another quick motion of his hands readily canceled them out.

Yuka's frown deepened. "You're just full of tricks, aren't you?" he asked through gritted teeth, Cana's words from before they began fighting starting to prove true.

The Card Wizard noted the unusual trepidation in his voice. If he was so confident about being untouchable, why was he losing his cool against her various spells? Maybe this was the opening she was looking for. "Cero Doble!" she cried in her latest attack, summoning a pink sphere in front of her. It charged its potency momentarily, giving Yuka ample time to signal a Wave to absorb the great blast it unleashed.

"That won't work, either!" he mocked as he released the dome he cast around him. He was beginning to feel the fatigue of having to neutralize so many hard-hitting spells, but judging by the look on her face, she was wearing down, too. The energy required to play those cards had to be costly.

Cana, despite her visible tire, smirked like she was about to draw a winning hand. "Don't you know what '_doble_' means? Look behind you."

Confused, Yuka swiveled his head, and spotted the second pink ball of light just before it shot another beam. He put his dome back up immediately, taking the monumental blow. After it expired, he lowered his defenses and prepared to gloat. However, he couldn't help but feel overcome with dread at the smile the gorgeous young woman sent his way. It promised more danger than her last move.

"Well, it's been fun," she said, "but now that I've picked up on your tell, this duel is over."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. He didn't mean to sound as shaken as he did. Could she really have figured him out?

"If you were so sure that no wizard could get to you - not even an S-Class - why would you ever sweat so much during a battle?" Cana inquired. "For every different card I used, you cast your Waves with a different set of hand motions like clockwork. You even did it when I reflected your own little bubbles back at you. But when I tried the same attack consecutively, all of a sudden there was no need for all that."

Yuka gulped. This girl was not only tremendously strong, but her intelligence was as sharp as steel.

"Before you said you had no intentions of taking part, I thought you split up from your pals to cover more ground on an assault on the village. You knew this would get us to split up, too, and now I understand why singling one of us out would play right into your hand," she continued. "When I noticed the pattern of your spells, I put it together: you can only nullify one specific type of magic at a time. Am I right?"

The man furrowed his oversized eyebrows. "It makes no difference!" he barked defensively.

"It makes _all_ the difference," she corrected with a grin. "I bet you weren't expecting to face someone with such versatility at her disposal." She held up a glowing card between her fingers, which she then fanned out to reveal two more cards behind the first. "I wonder what'll happen when I combine these three spells at once?"

She tossed the trio of lights upwards, which began to levitate a foot over her head. The first in the set lit up brighter than the others, kicking up a violent cyclone around Yuka. Instinctively he tried to charge out of it, but found the force encircling him to be solid as mortar, repelling his efforts to escape.

"You just ran into my Wind Wall. You're totally locked in, and if you're thinking about busting free with a Wave, it won't do you any good," Cana smiled in triumph as the other two miniature stars above her began to radiate as much as the prior, one in blue and the other in yellow. "You know what they say about how water and electricity aren't supposed to mix? Let me show you why - Lightning Vortex!"

With a sweep of her arm, a whirlpool of water began to gush in sync with the wind. As if the flood wasn't enough, sparkling volts also traveled with the currents, the storm contained in place by the gust. Over the roar of her attack, she could make out the sound of Yuka's gargled underwater screams as he was ravaged by the fusion of elements. Figuring he'd had enough, she released her attack, dropping him flat on the ground as soon as he was no longer sealed in.

Cana strode over to where he lay, and sighed as she sat down next to him, craving a drink. Pulling out all the stops had been an exhausting task. She couldn't afford to run right back into another fight in her condition, so she hoped that Lucy and Loke would be able to manage to save the village without her. Listening closely, the quakes coming from inside the gates had disappeared, something she took as a positive sign.

"Tell me..." Yuka groaned weakly, catching her by surprise. She thought he was out cold, but it seemed that he still had some life to stay awake, driven by pride. "You're an... S-Class Wizard... aren't you?"

Her relief ebbed for a moment at the inquiry, but then she was able to crack a slight self-depreciating grin as the vow she'd made herself came to mind. "Sorry, but no. Just your average wizard girl. But someday, though. Someday."

**- 0 -**

Erza charged through the forest on foot, her armor clinking with every step. A part of her wished that her presence would be unnecessary, with Cana and the others already having secured the natives' settlement. But her other half wished that she could enact some vengeance against any or all of Lyon's servants. While the first scenario would obviously be ideal, the second would be her preference if she were to be honest.

As she came to a right curve along the path, the rows of trees blocking off the village suddenly shrunk. They rapidly lost all of their height and girth, until they were just tiny saplings that were eventually sucked back into the earth. She stopped at the bewildering occurrence, and noticed that the disappearing greenery was giving way to a new road. There was no questioning that someone wanted her to traverse that route instead of the main path.

Cautiously, she proceeded down the aisle created specifically for her. She payed mind to every detail around her, anticipating the ambush that was surely to come. Rustling from a nearby tree prompted her to summon her sword, and she sliced the crystal ball rocketing for her with inhuman reflexes, carving it into exact symmetrical halves.

"Show yourself!" she demanded into the early night.

A snide laugh reverberated all around her, and Zalty dropped from a tree opposite from where his attack came from, landing in a crouch. He peered at Erza through the black holes in his mask, grinning wildly. "Are you a believer of fate, or just mere coincidence, Titania?"

Two questions surfaced to her mind in response. "What do you mean?" she asked, also wondering how he knew who she was.

Zalty snickered. "The boy that was the catalyst to sending Lyon on his journey to try to free Deliora has arrived just in time to stop him, with 'Titania' Erza at his side. You might just be a pawn in the grand scheme of things to the Cold Emperor, but I have a little more interest in you than he."

"And why's that?" she asked as she gripped her blade tighter.

"Let's just say," he began knowingly, "that you're a much more valuable piece on someone _else's_ chessboard."

Whatever connections she could've derived from that statement caused her to angrily charge at the man. With deceptive agility, he nimbly avoided every slash, dancing along with the flashing light reflected off Erza's sword. He hopped back to create space, then extended his arm and pulled it back in one quick motion. Realizing she was being targeted, she was only made alert of the same teal orb rushing for her again at the last second, right before it collided with her shoulder pauldron.

Erza felt her arm tingle with numbness from the blow, so she switched her sword to her left hand as the orb made another pass at her. With adeptness most people lacked in their lead arm, she impaled the unorthodox weapon, shattering it into tiny fragments. Just as she was about to direct her focus back on the man, her peripheral vision caught the orb reassembling itself back into a whole. Surprised, she watched the flawless crystal zip by her, to bob up and down over Zalty's open palm.

"What kind of magic allows you to do something like that?" she frowned. It wasn't a mere restoration spell, like the kind that Master Makarov used on the guild hall's furniture after brawl. She had destroyed that orb beyond conceivable repair.

"Lost Magic," he replied with a smirk, beginning to telepathically roll the ball around his arms and shoulders as he clarified. "My Arc of Time can send an object back to its past, or forward into its future. You could break my orb as much as you want; I can just send it back to its perfect condition, before you ever got to it."

Erza gritted her teeth. Lost Magic? She couldn't believe that at face value, especially when he was hiding his under a mask. But before she could make her next move, she was forced to release her sword. The disconnected blade and handle clattered on the ground as she clutched her hand, burnt through her glove. She Requipped out of her scorching gauntlet as she looked down at her weapon, studying the dull white-hot glow the steel emitted.

Zalty cackled. "Still have doubts about my powers? All I did was send your sword back to when it was first being forged. Now just think of what I could do with that lovely armor you're wearing..." Erza snarled at the insinuation, but he merely shook his head. "Ah, but we can't have that. You're still needed."

The redhead Requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor as she blitzed him, her new identical swords aimed for her enigmatic opponent. In a flash, he materialized his own sword, a dark blue blade with twisted ends. Zalty alternated between parrying her slashes and evading them, but continuously lost ground to Erza's unparalleled talents. She forced him back as he grinned at her all the while, even when his back bumped against a tree trunk. He narrowly dodged her last swipe, allowing the bark to be sliced open instead of his chest.

"Tell me what you're planning," Erza intoned precariously as he distanced himself further. Sensing his immense level of magical energy, she understood she was just being toyed with; he could've given her a serious problem if he chose to. "I get the feeling that you're only using Lyon as your own pawn, a means to an end. What is your true goal?"

"How ever did you come to that conclusion? Lyon is practically my brother," Zalty spat sardonically. "I want to eliminate the Iced Shell just as much as he," he continued, the severity in his voice now telling her he was being honest.

She still didn't have the whole truth, though. "Who were you speaking of before? Who else are you involved with?"

To that, he had to grin. "Conspiracies within conspiracies within conspiracies. It's a pain to keep track of everything. I will say this, Erza Scarlet: I'm glad I had the chance to meet you and test your power for myself. You'll do wonderfully." With that, he tossed his blade at Erza. She intended to bat it away with her own, but before she could, it left their world in the same light it arrived from. This time, the sneak attack failed, as she had figured there would be some kind of follow-up. She came close to smashing Zalty's orb a third time with a backswing, but it too disappeared before the impact.

Erza looked back at where the man had been standing a moment ago, but he had somehow disappeared from the area. She watched closely as the dirt he had left prints on swirled back into an undisturbed state. Even the trees that had been cleared away for their brief encounter sprouted back from the earth, leaving her enclosed with not just the reinvigorated forest, but with the troubled feelings in her chest. Who was that man, truly? And who was this person he mentioned, the one that loomed over her like a specter?

It couldn't be... Could it?

After what she'd been through in her life, rarely was Erza shaken. But at this threat, even in one of her strongest armors, she couldn't help but shiver.

**- 0 -**

When Gray finally made it to back up to the top of the temple using the same spell, he immediately targeted the druids reciting the Moon Drip incantation. He wasn't trying to maim them, only to send them running away to cancel the ceremony. Lyon, however, stepped in, casting his own version of an Ice-Make Shield to defend the proceedings.

"I won't deny it, Gray. A part of me wished that if our paths were to cross again, it would be after I had made peace with what you'd done and killed Deliora," he said solemnly. "It's a shame that you're so insistent on making me take two lives tonight."

"You're already taking two lives!" the dark-haired boy roared. "Don't you know that Ur's technically still alive? As the Iced Shell, she lives on! You've slowly been killing her for the past three years, and if you don't put an end to this right now, she'll be gone forever!"

"I am well aware of that," Lyon answered flatly, his voice completely cold.

Gray stared at him with shock, which gradually became rage. He wanted to believe his old rival was ignorant to that fact, that he didn't know of what melting the Iced Shell also meant. But now that he revealed that he did, it tore at the scars from that tragic night. "You've lost your damn mind, Lyon," he growled, doing his best to keep calm. "After everything she did for us, how could you do this to Ur?"

The silver-haired boy scoffed. "I am finally giving her the peace she deserves!" he said, growing more hysteric with each word. "I refuse to leave her forsaken as a mere cage for the rest of eternity! This way, I will not only prove my strength, but I will finally let her spirit rest! Ice-Make Panther!"

His one-handed spell summoned a large feline that bounded towards Gray maliciously, but Gray had more than readied his counter. "Ice-Make Cold Excalibur!" he called, producing a heavy broadsword used to reduce the panther into sizable chunks. He then charged at Lyon with his weapon reared back, dedicated to stopping his mad agenda.

"Ice-Make Diamond Dust!" he cried in response, creating a twisted, frozen blade of his own to parry Gray's. The two exchanged slashes, but even with the damage the Fairy Tail wizard had taken earlier, he wasn't slowed down at all as he tried to bludgeon his opponent with his bigger sword. Lyon growled as he slipped into a more defensive role, unable to find an opening to strike back.

Their blades clashed as they got tangled in the snowflake-shaped teeth of Lyon's weapon, letting out a hollow ring as Ur's former students held the stance, trying to overpower the other. "Put an end to this! Before it's too late!" Gray demanded powerfully.

"All I have is my dream! Nothing will keep me from seeing it through!" Lyon insisted.

Suddenly, the steady chanting that had served as ominous background music to their battle ended. The two ice mages noticed this, and separated to give their attention to a lead druid as he stepped forward, breaking the circle. "It is done, Cold Emperor," he said, inclining his hooded head. "The Moon Drip is finally complete."

Lyon's slanted eyes grew large at hearing this, as his previous look of scorn morphed into one of vile joy. "After three years..." he began in a whisper to himself, unable to complete the sentence in his reverie.

Meanwhile, Gray had the opposite reaction. "No..." he uttered. He felt sick. His heart sank, and his wounds from before seemed fresh once again.

Lyon, remembering the next step in his plan, took off past the despondent Gray. Casting a slick coating of ice over the stairs leading down to the first floor of the pyramid, he glided down effortlessly. He used his magic again to smash through the temple's walls, to find the room where Gray and his friends had inadvertently created a shortcut to Deliora's lair. As he neared the bottom of the drop, he made a slide of ice to prevent an untimely end. He continued to run through the swerving tunnel, until he finally came into the illuminated cavern.

"At long last," he said, grinning from ear to ear. The violet beam of moonlight traveled through the temple and earth, hitting the frozen giant's prison. Cracks ran along all over the surface, as streams of melted ice water dripped to form a pool at the bottom of the hole it was partially in. The fissures echoed resoundingly as they grew deeper, nearing the monster's feet. A moment later, the ice could no longer maintain its fortitude, and shattered completely. The pieces collapsed into the pool, staying afloat like miniature icebergs, as Deliora was released once more. "I'll finally be able to surpass Ur!"

Lyon brandished his Diamond Dust and prepared to lunge towards the demon, but to his surprise, the crackling sound never ceased ringing throughout the cavern. Puzzled, he watched as Deliora began to hunch, only to realize that it was actually toppling from the waist. Its arms also disassembled in clean breaks, followed by the upper right half of its terrifying head. Mortified, he could only look at the ruins of the hell-sent monster as the water rose to the ankles of his metallic boots.

"So Deliora's been dead all this time," a voice from behind said. He turned around to see Gray, sloshing through from the cave entrance. His Cold Excalibur still in hand, he too witnessed the root of his loathing crumble pathetically. "After being sealed in the Iced Shell for so long, its life force must've been drained gradually, until nothing remained but a hollow carcass."

"Then, my dream...?" Lyon asked distantly. "I'm never going to be able to prove to myself that I exceeded my master's powers?"

"Dammit, Lyon!" Gray yelled at him. "Don't you get understand it yet? Ur would've never wanted for you to waste your life with a dream like that! She wanted us to grow into the best Ice-Make Wizards we could be; she never wanted to have been the measure of our strength! But you toiled away all these years with that as your only ambition, and look where it's gotten you? Ur's gone for good, and she took Deliora with her. There's nothing left for you here, and you've got no idea what you're gonna do now, do you?"

Taking in his words, Lyon stared absently at his submerged feet. He saw his reflection, soon joined by Gray's as he carefully approached from the rear. Overtaken with rage and grief, he spun around with his sword aiming for Gray's heart. The dark-haired boy blocked his attack, and took a few steps back. "You're absolutely right, Gray," he said, very lowly. "I have no purpose anymore. This was supposed to have been the ultimate moment in my life, but it's all been for nothing. I was going to start over after this, free of the past, but how can I look forward anymore? This was all I've ever wanted, and I've failed at it!"

"There's still so much for you to do," Gray tried to reason. "You can join a guild, travel the world, meet a girl, whatever you want now. You _are_ free."

"No," he shook his head with a frown. "I can't accept that so easily. Ur was the greatest Ice-Make Wizard to ever live, and I was supposed to have been her star pupil. I might never know for sure how to compare my powers to hers, but there is another remnant left of her, and that's _us_." Lyon raised his saber at Gray, pointing it to his guild mark. "If I can stand atop all others that practice our brand of magic, no one else will ever be able to claim that they were a greater Ice-Make Wizard than Ur! Her legacy will go untouched!"

Gray inwardly smirked. This was progress, at the very least. Outwardly, he remained poised, ready to help push his old rival to the breakthrough he needed to get his life back. "I'm not gonna lose to you again, Lyon!" he proclaimed, right before the two resumed their swordplay.

With renewed vigor, each slash they delivered rocked their weapons closer to expiration. Despite Cold Excalibur's size advantage, Diamond Dust's strength was more compressed in its blade, evening out the damage split. Realizing every swing was critical, they were more judicious in their use, attacking strictly to win instead of trying to lure the other in with feints.

Finally, Gray was able to smash Lyon's Diamond Dust when they met head to head, but he'd timed the break perfectly. "Ice-Make Wolf!" he cried as he ducked under the follow-up swipe, forming a rabid wolf's head over his hand. Gray was just able to twist Cold Excalibur back to shield his abdomen, at the cost of having his sword crushed between the canine's fanged jaws.

The punch's impact still sent him reeling, but he saw an opportunity to return fire. "Ice-Make Cannon!" he shouted as his momentum carried him backwards, creating an over-the-shoulder blaster that shot a frozen cannonball with tremendous velocity.

"Ice-Make Rhino!" Lyon countered, summoning the horned beast with its head lowered. Its thick, plated skull was able to absorb the brunt of the attack, but the resulting explosion managed to throw him to the ground, and fill the lair with a fine vapor. "You're stronger than I first believed, Gray. Perhaps you _did_ learn something from Ur, after all," he commended with a tiny grin as it thinned out, returning the dark-haired boy to sight as he picked himself up.

"And I've never _stopped_ learning, either," Gray said, tone leveled. "That's what being in a guild does for you. Fairy Tail's taught me so much about the world, about people, about myself. Every day gives you something new to take in."

Lyon smirked briefly as he looked up at the cavern ceiling. While the Moon Drip no longer flowed into the room, residual moonlight maintained the area in a purple neon-like glow. "It'll be a new day soon," he pointed out, flexing his right hand. It was time to end things.

Gray nodded, understanding both the literal and symbolic meaning to his words. "Ice-Make Totem!" he said, rearing his dominant arm back. A large, wide totem pole materialized to float beside it, the flat base of the stylized statue aimed at Lyon.

"Ice-Make -" Lyon started, but then lost the remainder of his spell to a gasp when he failed to channel any magic through his casting hand.

His heart jackhammered in his chest as he stubbornly tried to finish his invocation, but to his distress, nothing happened. His eyes widened as Gray swung his arm with a roar, launching his Totem to barrel into him with the force of a lateral anvil. It sent him flying back, over the pool of containing Deliora' and the Iced Shell's remains, and crashing into the opposite cave wall.

**- 0 -**

When Lyon regained consciousness, he realized he was back outdoors. Before he could make heads or tails of anything else besides that and the throbbing in his head, excited clamoring invaded his ears.

"Cold Emperor!"

"You've awoken!"

"Are you hurt, my love?"

He tried to shrug away his subordinates, but then felt the thick ropes tying his arms behind his back. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, he looked forward to see the shirtless, bruised boy staring down at him and his peers. "I told you, Lyon," Gray said, his face serious but his tone hiding a smirk, "one-handed casting is too volatile to rely on consistently."

Lyon held his gaze for a second before sighing in acceptance. "So it is," he muttered. He craned his neck to see Yuka, Toby, Sherry, and the rest of the unmasked druids all rounded up as well, in the restrained custody of Gray and his friends. The other young man and the three beautiful girls all stood with him, slightly spread out in a semi-circle around them, just in case anyone attempted to escape. "You managed to defeat us all," he said, unable to help a smirk at his poor fortune.

"Yeah," the blonde nodded energetically, "and now, you're gonna tell us how to stop the curse on this island."

Lucy shivered as Lyon turned his cold line of sight on her. "What exactly are you talking about?"

Cana frowned at him. "When you arrived here three years ago, the Moon Drip spell began to affect the natives of this island. The moon turned violet, and every night, everyone in the village transforms into a demon thanks to you. Are you saying you don't know anything about that?"

Lyon shook his head, becoming aware of how they'd been gathered behind the settlement's gates. "During the few times I'd left this place to go back to the mainland for supplies, I'd hear whispers about how Galuna Island was supposed to be cursed. Those stories weren't around when we first got here, so I figured they might have pertained to what we were doing at the temple. I had no idea that the villagers were turning into demons, though."

"So for all that time, you really never had any contact with Galuna's people?" Loke asked with a raised eyebrow. "They told us they never went outside their borders to check out what was going on, but you'd think that sometime in three years, one of you guys would come asking to borrow a cup of sugar or something. Maybe if you had, you would've realized just how crazy your whole plan was and stopped before it got so out of hand."

Gray crossed his arms with a scowl. "There's really nothing you can tell us about how to turn them back to normal? Even though you finished your ritual, the moon's still purple, and the villagers haven't returned to how they were."

"I'm afraid we don't have the answers you're looking for," Lyon said apologetically, murmurs of agreement rising from his followers.

"However, I have to point out an inconsistency to all of this," Yuka spoke up. "We, the casters of the Moon Drip, haven't suffered from any kind of ailments because of it. We've been just as exposed to it as the villagers, though."

"We've got nothing left to hide at this point. Maybe it's _they_ who're keeping something from you," Sherry suggested.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Erza concurred with a nod. "Since we shipwrecked on to Galuna Island, I've had the impression that something here wasn't quite adding up. But before we can see the village chief, there is something that I'd like to ask of you, Lyon: do you know who Zalty really was?"

Lyon turned once more, registering that the masked man wasn't included with the other captives. "To be honest, I'm not sure," he said quietly. "Zalty was actually the one who introduced me to the Moon Drip. He'd sought me out with that information when he learned of my desire to free and kill Deliora, and helped me amass these followers, other victims of the demon's rampage. But, he never spoke much of himself or why exactly he wanted to help me. Even though he never gave me reason to question his loyalty, he had a knack for disappearing at any given length of time, without any kind of pattern for his return."

"I see," Erza absorbed the details. She hadn't expected Lyon to have much of an answer for her. "Now, we're going to meet with the chief and get to the bottom of this mystery. We will set you free, because you have no further reason for being here on the island," she commanded, making clear the intentions that would not be disobeyed.

After undoing all their ropes, Gray and Lyon shared one last look of acknowledgment before he and his team stepped through the gates. They made their way back to the center of the village, where the natives anxiously awaited any solution to their issues. Chief Moka stood at the forefront, stepping closer to his oncoming guests with a melancholic expression.

"Fairy Tail wizards," he greeted them with a small bow. "It appears that you were victorious against the invaders of our island, but we remain in these wretched forms! There is only one solution left! You must destroy the moon!"

"We will," the redhead agreed with a straight face, eliciting a string of comedic reneging from her friends. "Before we get to that, however, we need to know what it is you're hiding from us."

Moka and his people stared at her, perplexed and irritable. "We have given you nothing but the truth. Three years ago, the moon sentenced us to these abominable disfigurations, and we secluded ourselves within our village gates, fearing our prayers would not work outside the walls."

Cana raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say earlier that you brought in doctors from the mainland to make sure this wasn't a disease? To do that, you'd probably have to send someone away from here as a guide, right?"

Again, the crowd was confused, but Moka grew angry. "I would never condemn one of my own to such a task!" the chief cried, livid. "No doctor from beyond our village would have any idea how to treat this hex! Only our shamans have studied the effects of the purple moon's light!"

The team looked at one another, wondering about the change in story. "Question," Lucy said, raising her hand slightly. "Did you know about the outsiders, and how they were using the temple for a ceremony of some kind?"

"Of course we knew!" Moka practically screamed. "We could see strange activity in the temple's direction from our lookout towers!"

"Then why didn't you mention it to us yesterday?" the blonde continued to press, unphased by his attitude. "That's definitely something you should've shared."

"We did! We told you all about it!"

"Yeah, actually, you didn't - and that's not something we'd be likely to forget so soon," Loke said, narrowing his eyes as he studied the rest of the inhabitants. None of them seemed in opposition to their leader's claim, even though the five mages knew it wasn't true. It was now readily apparent to them that something else entirely was wrong with the inhabitants.

Before Moka could defend his stance even more, Erza held up an arm to silence all as she Requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor. "I will solve everything once and for all," she said, lifting off the ground. "I will destroy the moon." She burst upwards as dozens of glowing blades appeared to spin around her, creating a beautiful halo for those watching down below that gradually grew smaller as she neared the heavens. At the apex of her ascent, she pointed her weapons at the world's satellite and shouted, "Circle Sword!"

Her team's dubious looks changed to the same awe as the villagers' as Erza's attack created a mighty impact. The sky cracked like glass, immediately spiderwebbing for miles. Shortly after, pieces of the atmosphere began to twinkle as it broke to rain down on the island, removing with it the ghastly purple aura around the moon. It had been reverted back to its original pale silver, restoring a profound light in the eyes of Galuna's people.

"The Moon Drip was responsible for the 'curse' on the island," Erza started to explain as she lowered herself, curious eyes and ears on her, "but not in the sense that we were lead to believed. When Lucy's spirit informed us on the spell, it brought up some red flags for me. The first being that humans are supposed to be immune to its side-effects. The second was about the pollution it leaves behind. What you saw me shatter just now was a dome of crystallized fumes that had formed over the island, giving the moon that violet color, and had been tampering with the natives' memories."

"What?" the chief demanded. "Nothing you're saying is making any sense!"

"Not under the impression you're under," the redhead replied. "You see, thanks to the side-effects of the Moon Drip, you were convinced that you were humans who were plagued by demonic metamorphoses. In reality, your human forms are merely Transformation Magic gone awry; you are actually _demons_." It took a moment for the statement to sink in to both sides, but once it did, conflicted but civilized refuting droned in from the accused party. Erza settled them with a nod, saying, "I know it's hard to believe, but once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

"And that _is_ the truth," a voice called. From the rooftops of a nearby building, a new demon glided in between the wizards and the crowd. Gasps rang out from the natives at first, then the help they'd brought. "When the outsiders' ritual began three years ago, the grand majority of the village started believing in a false humanity," Bobo the sailor, as well as the chief's purportedly-dead son, said to all. "A select few of us remained immune to these everchanging memories, and every couple of nights we would have to explain again what was really going on.

"Unfortunately, one night, you responded violently to our claims. You were all so engrossed in these delusions, that you took up arms against us. We could see the sadness you were feeling when you locked us up, but it didn't stop you from killing us. However, I survived, and made it to the mainland, waiting for a day you would think to contact the services of a guild," he said grimly. He looked to the wizards, offering them an apologetic smile. "I hope you understand why I kept all this from you. I thought perhaps if you knew you were helping demons, you might've backed off the mission. We're quite a benevolent people, though."

As the truth of the matter dawned on the islanders, Moka staggered up to his son. He clutched at him, making sure he was real, before they mutually pulled each other into a firm embrace. "Bobo," he said, tears rolling down his eyes. "I am so sorry for what I had done to you and the others. I know I don't deserve forgiveness..."

"It's alright," Bobo patted him on the back when he broke down in sobs. "The 'curse' is over. We are free to live happily once more."

Gray and the others smiled at the scene unraveling. The villagers all sprouted the wings they'd forgotten about, and took to the sky liberated of the Moon Drip exhaust. It didn't matter that they were demons; it was a supreme accomplishment what they'd done for the people, and the ice mage felt it especially. While no one would've blamed him, he knew he had a hand in bringing them such grief. Their whooping of joy absolved him of that guilt, as well as the remaining weight of his master's fate. A warmth reached his core, knowing Ur would be proud him for how he'd faced these trials.

The wizards were soon thrown into the celebration, as food and beverages were brought out. It didn't take much to convince them to unwind after the day's events. As the others had their bowls filled with an adventurous broth, Cana aimed to defeat every demon that challenged her to a drinking contest. Lucy watched in amusement as she crushed the men's spirits, only for them to quickly turn and cheer for her unprecedented winning streak. Her attention was taken away as a familiar demon girl walked up to her with an admiring smile.

"Miss Lucy," she bowed her head, a small group behind her mirroring the gesture. She was Lulu, the owner of the apartment they'd slept in the night before. "We all watched as you and your magic key spirits bravely defended our village from the girl who made monsters out of nature. Long ago, we uncovered buried pirate treasure, and found an item similar to the ones you own. As a token of our eternal gratitude, we would like to offer this to you."

She held out her open palm, a Golden Key glinting in the night. Lucy squealed in delight at the prize, but then remembered what Natsu, Happy and Lisanna had taught her about the complexities of accepting rewards. She looked over at Erza with her best puppy-dog eyes, and after a moment, was given permission in the form of a single nod to take it. "Thank you so much," she said earnestly as she slipped it into her case.

"If you weren't wearing a skirt, we would be throwing you up in the air to further honor your feats," Lulu said happily. The blonde thanked her for her foresight.

The party continued on with no signs of faltering, until a loud shriek cut through the merriment. The focus shifted to the street, where Lyon and his followers stood, the torchlight casting menacing shadows over them. Erza, Cana and Lucy rose from their table, while Gray and Loke stepped to the front of the mob of girls surrounding them. "What're you doing here?" the dark-haired boy asked his rival disdainfully.

'We came to extend an apology to the people of Galuna Island," Lyon said with sincerity, leading his forces as they bowed at the waist. "It was never our goal for you to come under any harm. That you were unintended victims of the Moon Drip's side-effects is something that I can't easily forgive myself for, and I will long regret the decision to attack your village."

The rest of his allies agreed, especially Sherry, who shed tears over her actions. Moka slowly walked up to Lyon, the area cast in suspense at what he would say or do. "We celebrate those we lost, and the truth we've rediscovered. It will take time before things will be fully set right, but for now, in the spirit of the festivities, we ask you to join us!" The whole town roared in support, as mugs were thrust to their former enemies. "Drink in atonement!" the chief declared.

"Cheers!" Cana lauded, she and her friends settling in agreement.

Many hours passed before things finally began to quiet down. Rays of light peeped over the treetops as the assembly dispersed. Lyon and his company had tried to retreat much earlier, but their magnanimous hosts refused. Now, as the party's luster wore off, they began to skulk away, until a voice called out to him. "So what're you gonna do now?" Gray asked, his balance wavering. The beating from their fight and the subsequent mingling hadn't allowed him any time to recuperate.

Lyon gave a small sigh, just as spent. "We were all thinking we could stick around for a bit to help rebuild the section of the village that was ruined in the battle. After that," he said, smirking as he gazed at his wizard companions, "I don't know yet. I've heard some good things about the guild life."

Gray smiled at the hopeful looks on the faces of Yuka, Sherry and Toby. Over the course of the party, he'd learned they'd been former members of the Lamia Scale guild before joining Lyon's cause. He nodded at the group, before turning back to retire at Lulu's apartment. Along the way he encountered a grinning Cana walking with a drowsy Lucy in the same direction, and Erza pulling a cheeky Loke by the furry scruff of his jacket as well.

Whatever admonishing the redhead was about to do had to be put on hold as excited chatter began sounding not too far from their location. A pair of demons rushed around the corner with elated expressions. "The part of the town that had been destroyed has been completely fixed!" they reported with huge grins. "It's as if nothing had ever happened! It's a miracle!"

The wizards smiled, but chose to put it in the back of their minds to question how it had happened later. Erza, however, believed she knew who was responsible. The more appropriate question was, why?

"Man, this was totally awesome," Lucy said after eating a yawn as they came to the door. "_We're_ totally awesome." In such a short time at her new guild, she'd already gone on what felt like a lifetime of adventures. While it was such a brilliant bask to do good in the world and help others that needed it, it was made all the better that she had gotten to do it all with such amazing friends. What did Fairy Tail have in store for her next?

* * *

><p><em>And so we end the first arc without Natsu (and Happy). I do hope you found my version of events and the fights satisfactory. Now, let's play Spot the Reference!<em>

_Cana's fight was Shout-Out City. That was one battle I'd looked forward to for a good while, because of all the awesome things I could do with her as a true S-Class-worthy wizard. The Yu-Gi-Oh! references all explain themselves hopefully, very easy to do for a card mage, but what I borrowed from Pokemon and Bleach might've been harder to catch. Overheat is a really cool-looking attack in the anime, and when I needed a super double strike for her, I thought a more literal take on Nel's special Cero Doble would be perfect._

_I knew I couldn't resist throwing in a Keyblade at some point, and I figured giving Lyon the icy Diamond Dust was a great place to do so. And if the Ice-Make Totem sounded like something you'd seen before, think Horo Horo's Nipopo Punch from Shaman King._

_Now, I felt kind of bad for relegating Loke to just a Big Damn Heroes moment instead of giving him a full battle, but really, this chapter is already way long, and there isn't a whole lot that could be done with Toby. Sorry, Loke fans, I'll be making it up to you big time, though. Erza's battle with Zalty also was more for plot than action, and I hope you can understand why._

_But hold on! If this incredibly long chapter has you still wanting more, fret not! I wrote a very special Sidestory to go along with this, starring a young Gray during his time as Ur's student! It's an emotional piece that will bring about the feels, so be sure to check it out, too!_

_As per usual, this last bit is reserved for me trying to guilt you into leaving a review! So I'll see you next time, at the beginning of Phantom Lord!_


	11. Phantom Lord Arc - Part 1

_Wow, we've made it to Phantom Lord arc! Man, I can't tell you how much it means to me to have been able to reach this point. Of course, all you readers had a big part in keeping me going, so thanks._

_But enough with the mushy stuff! On to the story!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 11<br>- Sucker Punch -**

After the late night of partying, Lucy, Cana, Gray, Loke and Erza all climbed aboard Lyon's ship with only two hours of sleep holding them up. When the former enemy and his crew were relieved of their self-imposed duty to repair the damages to the village, they offered to carry along the Fairy Tail members on their sail back to the mainland.

Loke was the first to approach the once-opposing forces on the large galleon, hastily accepting Toby's apology for hurting him (even though no such thing had occurred) to do the same for Sherry. Of course this lead to the proposition of a date, but he was promptly rebuffed by the pink-haired girl. Cana and Lucy snickered at the rejection as the brunette chatted with Yuka, and the blonde and Erza interacted with some of the non-wizard victims of Deliora. Gray and Lyon stood within speaking distance of one another, but never said much.

The oddly friendly ride came to an end as the sun rolled into the afternoon, as the ship arrived at the ports of Hargeon. Lucy and the others stepped off, and waved farewell to Lyon and the others as they continued their voyage to the westernmost coasts of Fiore, to Lamia Scale.

It wasn't until after the train ride back to Magnolia that the reality finally sank in for Lucy. "We just completed an S-Class mission!" she cried excitedly as they made their way to the guild hall. She contained herself from also announcing to the city that she, with her share of the reward, was now 1.4 million Jewel richer. She never would've dreamed that she'd earn so much in her first week as an official wizard, or that she would've also added two more Golden Keys to her collection. Even more impressive than the colossal sum of money she now had loading her bank account, was the fact that she was in possession of almost half of the zodiac set of Celestial Spirits. "We totally rock!"

The rest of her Galuna Island teammates nodded and smiled in agreement, but that was as much of that sentiment as she was going to get for the time being.

"Lucy! How could you just ditch us like that?!" Natsu exclaimed hysterically as soon as they walked into the base. "And to help Gray of all people?!"

"You were supposed to have been the ferocious fourth member of Team Happy..." the blue cat said with droopy eyes. "We were gonna be unstoppable..."

"How did you manage to get taken on an S-Class quest? It's not fair!" the Dragon Slayer continued his tirade, before focusing on the armored redhead. "Erza! You have to let me go on one!" he demanded, pointing at her. The way her bangs slipped over her right eye caused the others around her to give them considerable space, but Natsu seemed unaware of her daunting aura. "Mira refuses to take me, so you're gonna have to do it! If you can take Gray and Lucy with you, you can take me! Besides, you owe me after never finishing our fight, so -"

The next word that was about to slip off his tongue devolved into a howl of agony as Erza nailed him with a brutal right hook. The boy flew through the air, then smashed into the far wall, leaving a Natsu-shaped dent that rooted him against gravity.

The members, who had quieted to watch the exchange, resumed their business, even as Lucy continued to stare at the dazed Natsu on the wall with wide eyes. It wasn't until she noticed Happy sulking off to the Strauss' table that she snapped back to reality after witnessing Erza's full power. "Hey, Happy," she called after him, joining the three white-haired siblings in their usual spot. "I'm sorry that I left without telling you guys. If you'd been around, I would've let you know they wanted me to go along."

"Don't apologize, it's fine," Lisanna smiled at her. "I think it's great that you're getting along so well with everyone in the guild. You shouldn't feel guilty about accepting offers to work with other people, it's bound to happen. I know the boys might seem a little upset right now, but they'll get over it."

"Natsu was the one that had the idea in his head that the four of us were a team," Happy said, living up to his name once more with a cheeky grin. "I told him it was okay to let you test the free agent waters, because you'd come running right back to us anyway - and it looks like I was right."

"Oh, please," Mira rolled her eyes, smirking at the cat. "You missed Lucy more than anyone." Happy scratched his head in indifference to the claim. However, a slight blush colored his blue-furred cheeks. Content with the reaction, the model turned her mesmerizing eyes on the girl. "Anyway, so tell us all about your little island getaway."

"Ooh, is it alright if we hear this, too?" Levy asked brightly, walking up to them with Jet and Droy in tow. "We were totally worried about you when we heard you'd gone on an S-Class mission. We're so glad you made it back okay!"

After greeting the Shadow Gear trio, Lucy began to tell her tale, thankful that this time, no one would hear of any extravagant modifications from Happy. When she got to the beginning of the battles, she managed to pull in Gray, Cana and Loke so the audience would have a first-hand description of their fights (Erza was unavailable, as she was recounting the adventure to Master Makarov in his office). Once they finished, they earned a round of applause for their conquest, even from a begrudging Natsu, who had at some point joined them after freeing himself from the wall.

"Now that's real men at work," Elfman commended with a booming slow clap. "You've done the guild proud."

"It won't be long before everyone gets to hear about how you guys broke the curse on Galuna Island," Levy said with a big smile. Throughout the presentation, she had been furiously scribbling all the details in a notebook, filling up nearly six pages with exquisite penmanship. "If we get this to Sorcerer Weekly, you would get a cover-page blurb for sure!"

"Just a sec, Levy," Happy whispered to the petite girl. "I can tell Lucy's just being modest, but don't worry, I'll get the full story out of her. I'll report back to you tomorrow morning, and then we can tell everyone how much butt she really kicked."

"Man, that should've been me out there!" Natsu bemoaned. "If I'd been there, I would've -"

"Ended up destroying the village by accident?" Gray cut him off pointedly.

"Demolished the temple because you figured it'd stop the Moon Drip?" Cana teased.

"Tried to fight Deliora yourself?" Loke added with his shades gleaming.

Natsu growled as he answered their questions in order. "No, if I had to, and of course!"

"Anyway," Lucy intervened before things spiraled out of control, although she didn't quite know how to follow up now that she everyone had turned to her. Fortunately for her, the hall entrance swung open with what could only be described as supreme authority. The guild went into a similar state of awe as when Lucy had first seen Erza, but instead of the venerable type of fear the redhead had instilled in them, the four figures that stood at the doorway brought with them a heavier, oppressive air.

The tall, lanky man whose dress was a mix between a knight and a joker caught her attention first, as his long, stamped tongue hung out of his mouth wildly for all to see. The shorter woman with glittering wings beside him could've been considered highly beautiful, but the look in her bespectacled eyes was filled an unfavorable amount of arrogance. The third individual with them, a handsome, regal man with striking green hair and a rapier on his belt, seemed the least imposing, but his apathetic gaze could not be misconstrued as inviting in any way.

However, it was the blond leader of the pack that had Fairy Tail holding its breath. He was taller than anyone Lucy had seen at the guild so far, with an incredibly muscular physique as well. His fur coat hung off his shoulders, symbolizing an affront to rules and convention. His teeth were displayed in a grin, but not in a warm introduction to his guildmates; he smirked at them with resolute superiority, as if he owned all before him.

"We're back," he stated coolly as the four strode inside. The group's destination clear, the wizards at the opposite corner table in the back scattered from their spots. However, the four didn't even make it halfway before a snarling voice pierced through the quiet.

"Laxus!" Natsu challenged, jumping out into the aisle with a fanged grin. "Fight me!"

"That's Laxus?" Lucy asked, but no one likely heard her whisper.

The blonde man scoffed, inciting Natsu into a fiery charge down the walkway. He lifted a single finger, then unleashed a thin lightning bolt at the Dragon Slayer. For the second time that day, the scarfed boy was blown back by tremendous force, left sparking in a new crater in the far wall beside his first indentation. "He never learns, does he?" Laxus smirked rhetorically.

Lucy gasped at the scene. She'd heard of the strength the Guild Master's grandson, but she never would've thought such an innocuous attack would cause similar devastation as Erza's megaton punch. It was terrifying to imagine what he was capable of if he'd actually given effort.

Unlike the casual attitude everyone had the first time Natsu got smacked around, no one was able to return to their easy conversations. Lisanna and Happy hurried to check on the boy as he fell to the ground, trying to bring him back to consciousness. Lucy looked around her table, where she was surprised to see that even Mira watched the group with a frown.

"That's Laxus and the Thunder Legion," she said disdainfully as the man in charge barked their orders to the bar. "They're the strongest team in Fairy Tail."

Lucy's eyebrows raised in astonishment. If Mira, the woman who always refuted Erza's reputation with unwavering confidence, conceded the foursome's power, then it had to be true. "The Thunder Legion," she repeated. Just the name invoked command. "Who are they?"

"The dude in the visor, that's Bickslow," Jet explained of the gangly man with the wagging tongue. "I know Levy's always told us not to judge a book by its cover, but honestly, you're not getting the wrong idea if all you're doing is looking at the guy. He's got a few screws loose, no question."

"He's... quite the character," Levy smiled weakly in an effort to put a positive spin on things.

"Evergreen's the girl," Droy said as the amber-haired mage began to snidely fan herself. "She's a babe, but her major malfunction's that she thinks she's a real fairy. She figures that gives her the right to look down on us like we're nothing but dirt, so no guy here's tripping over themselves for her attention."

"It's pretty unfortunate," Loke affirmed. "So much to like, and yet, so little at the same time."

"And the last one," Cana began, sounding almost sad, "that's Freed. He mostly keeps to himself and he's really smart and strong, but for whatever reason, he's completely devoted to Laxus. The reason he didn't earn S-Class rank this year, even after getting through everyone else, was because Gramps knew it wasn't something he wanted for himself; he was only in it because he felt it was what Laxus wanted from him."

"The others also have S-Class potential, but none of them are manly in the slightest," Elfman said, crossing his arms. "Everyone here's like a family, but the Thunder Legion act like they're their own little sect and hardly interact with any of the other members. None of them look at Fairy Tail as a home."

Lucy absorbed the information, but refused to let it significantly influence her opinion on the team. So maybe they weren't the friendliest bunch of personalities. Maybe they were acutely aware of their standing in the guild, and maybe they threw their weight around a little. Still, they were Fairy Tail wizards, so how bad could they really be? Master Makarov seemed like the kind of man that wouldn't cultivate any bad seeds, so she trusted in his decision to imbue them with his flag's insignia.

"I thought I heard you down there," the short elder called amiably from the second floor, hopping up to the railing with a stern Erza right behind him. "How did your mission go, my boy?"

"You know better than to ask that, old man," Laxus sneered up at him after a drink. "You honestly think those bastards stood a chance against us? Please."

Now Lucy could see why everyone soured at his presence. How could he use that disrespectful tone of voice with the Guild Master, his own grandfather?

Erza was on the cusp of replying angrily, but Makarov held up a hand to keep her at bay. "I'm glad to hear that," he answered, still putting on a smile.

Laxus smirked, shaking his head. "I bet you are. It's not like any of these other pathetic wizards here know how to actually get a job done," he said, suddenly growing serious as he cast a scowl over the hall. "If they're not downright incompetent, they're causing more destruction than the reward money can cover. Oh, sure, everyone loves this little trainwreck of yours right now, but the people out there that need things done right are eventually gonna catch on to reality. If these punk kids of yours don't get their acts together, no one's gonna look to Fairy Tail for help anymore."

The outburst at the claim was loud, but none was more vocal than the revived Natsu. "We're the best guild in the world!" he proclaimed over everyone else.

Laxus turned over to where the group was sitting. "And how much longer do you think people are gonna tolerate it when you screw up, Natsu? We're half of those media idiots' business right now. Whether it's another story on how 'Salamander' torched a whole block, or that demon you're sitting next to stripping for the centerfold, we're a cash cow for them."

Elfman bolted upright from his seat with clenched fists. "Watch your mouth," he warned dangerously.

The blond man met his gaze for a second, then smirked as if he'd wasted his time. "But what do you think would happen if they decided to change the narrative and turn the tables on you?" Laxus continued, ignoring Elfman to look back up at Makarov. "No one would wanna hire from this guild anymore, and it'd be all your fault for not pulling tight enough on the leash."

"That's enough!" Erza said, jumping over the guardrail. She landed before Lucy and the others' table, ready to put an end to his badmouthing by whatever means. "I will not allow you to speak to Master Makarov like that!"

"It's quite alright, Erza," the Wizard Saint said gruffly. "Let the boy finish his piece."

Laxus continued to grin. "You know, there's still a way for this place to be salvaged: appoint _me_ as Guild Master." All of the members were shocked at his demand, while Bickslow and Evergreen appeared pleased at the thought; Freed remained as impassive as ever. "Face it, old man. You're running this place into the ground, and I know all those complaints from the Magic Council aren't doing your health any favors. So why don't you do the sensible thing for yourself and retire while you can still enjoy some dignity? I'd never let Fairy Tail be known as a bunch of losers, so step down while you're still on top, and name me as your rightful successor."

Before the rest of the populace could cry in admonishment, Makarov hummed pensively with his eyes closed. "The day I will have to, for one reason or another, anoint a new Guild Master is on its way. However, you in particular," he said, propping one callous eye open, "shouldn't be making any plans to kick your feet up on my desk anytime soon."

Laxus frowned vitriolically as the guild erupted at the shot. The Thunder Legion were also summarily bothered, but left the response to their leader. When the cheering died down, Laxus simply grinned again, and vanished as a thunderbolt suddenly struck him. A light flashed up on the second story, where he reappeared against the railing a moment later, a job request in hand. With immeasurable power, he threw the sheet perfectly to Makarov, who caught it as another bolt teleported his grandson back to his table. "I'll let you rethink that," he said, smirking coldly as he beckoned Freed, Evergreen and Bickslow to rise from their seats. "You want what's best for this guild, don't you? Sleep on it. The right decision will hit you eventually."

With that, the strongest team marched out of the guild hall, without a single look back.

Makarov sighed, the poster in his hand crinkling as he relaxed his grip. "I know your heart's in the right place," he whispered as he began to retreat to his office, "but when did you start walking the wrong path?"

Minutes after their departure, Laxus and the Thunder Legion remained the hot topic. "I can't believe someone like that is Master Makarov's grandson," Lucy said, still upset at what had just transpired. "What a jerk."

"Definitely a buzzkill," Cana said flatly, peering into her near-empty mug that she hadn't been able to savor.

"I don't care who he is, he has no right to speak to Mira the way he did," Elfman harshly decreed. Lisanna, who acted as support for the weary Natsu, nodded fervently, lead a chorus of nodding among the circle in encouragement of what would happen otherwise. Mira only smiled in amusement, but couldn't help but feel slightly touched as they came to her defense.

"Let me play devil's advocate for a sec here, though," Gray spoke up. "I know it's weird to think of this place without him in charge, but Gramps basically just admitted he's not gonna be running things for much longer."

"He might only have a year or two left for the job," Loke said, looking surprisingly attached. "I know we should've been prepared for that, but still..."

"Erza," Natsu said, wincing as he leaned off Lisanna to sit up on his own. Despite his ragged appearance, his voice was oddly soft. "When Laxus mentioned Gramps's health... he's okay, isn't he? It's just his age, nothing else, right?"

The attention centered on Erza, who crossed her arms over her plated chest. "These past few years have been weighing heavily on Master Makarov," she said after a moment of contemplation. "It's been stressful for him to constantly have to deal with the Magic Council's berating. This was something for only those closest to him to know, but Laxus revealing it to the whole guild is a new low for him."

"Now everyone's gonna be on edge about it," Mira said, also having been one of the few privy to the information. "It'll take the fun out of going on jobs if you're just gonna worry about how screwing up could affect the Master."

"Well that's not the Fairy Tail way," Natsu frowned with renewed fire, shaking off the rest of his slump. "Gramps has always told us that the point of being here is to have fun, to adventure with our friends and learn together and stuff. He wouldn't want us to all of a sudden stop doing our best to help people if it means being miserable."

"You're right," Lisanna agreed with a smile. "No matter what, we're always gonna give our all. We're Fairy Tail."

"We're Fairy Tail," the pink-haired boy nodded, putting out a fist over the table as he shared a smirk with them all. Lisanna was the first to catch on, placing her fist alongside his. One by one, the other members of the table - Mira, Elfman, Gray, Cana, Loke, Levy, Droy, Jet, and Erza from her feet - reached out as well. Lucy, smiling eagerly, placed her marked hand on top of the cumulative gesture of pledging to Makarov's teachings.

"Aye!" Happy cried happily, floating above them all to lay down his paw last.

**- 0 -**

"My dear sir, I cannot express how much joy I feel to carry out your request," a tall man in a dark cloak grinned from across his antique desk, stroking his thin horseshoe mustache. "For years I've dreamed of such an incentive."

"You _will_ keep my daughter safe, won't you?" the sharply-dressed client asked, brows furrowing in apprehension. After hearing some of the extent of his craving to fight, perhaps it would've been wiser to have met with other magical contractors.

"Of course," the man with abnormally pointed features responded, practically dripping honey from his painted lips. "How can we expect Fiore to once again recognize us as the best guild in the land if we couldn't even manage that much for you?"

The client nodded. "Very well then," he concluded, reminding himself of why he had chosen to prioritize them as his first visit - and why he'd hoped they would be his only one. The two men sealed their partnership with a handshake, the figure in the suit trying to ignore the other's cold grasp with thoughts of success. If there was any faction that could oppose the savages that had brainwashed his daughter, this was going to be it.

After the gentleman left the room, two others made their presence known. A flurry of wind swept about without disturbing the leader behind his desk, becoming a burly man in a flowing green coat and matching hat, his eyes hidden by a blindfold. The second pounced down from the rafters with a guttural chuckle, creating a slight metallic clink as he landed.

"Aria, when can we expect Totomaru and Juvia to return?" the head of the organization asked, supporting his chin with his fist.

"Tomorrow or the day after, Master Jose," the man in green replied, as tears began to soak through the fabric around his eyes. "How sad, that we have to keep a loving father from reuniting with his daughter as we await our full forces."

"Indeed," Jose said, losing some of his smirk at the news. "I suppose for now, we'll have to content ourselves with just a warning shot. Gajeel?"

The other man bore his wicked teeth in a malicious grin, the sunshine coming in through the window glinting off the studs on his face. "That's fine by me."

**- 0 -**

The next morning, Lucy stumbled around her apartment as she got ready for the day. Her body and mind had yet to fully refresh from the celebration on Galuna Island, as she wasn't accustomed to the fervent partying her guild encouraged. Not even a warm shower had been able to completely reel her back from dreamland, where she had been paid a visit by her estranged father.

She hadn't thought much of him after she'd left her home. Not that her escapades since joining Fairy Tail had given her time to do so, but even then, she'd always finished her day by chronicling its significant events in a letter to her mom. Even then, she'd take a moment as she would lie in bed, staring up at her ceiling inviting sleep, to wonder about how her kind former servants were doing. But her father rarely crossed her mind.

After her mother's passing, the two had lived under the same great mansion, but they might as well have been on different worlds. Her father had scornfully closed himself off to her, delving so deep into his work that sometimes, she wouldn't see him over the course of weeks. As best as she tried to keep their relationship from falling out into an abyss, that was what resulted. Lucy practically grew up without a father; instead, she'd lived with a jaded man that couldn't be asked to even look her way.

She was slipping her belt through the loops of her jeans when an impatient rapping on her window caused her to let out a shriek. Turning around, she saw Natsu pulling up the sill, and attempting to climb through the opening. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she screamed as she booted him in the face, dropping him back to the outside. Happy, however, managed to swoop in elegantly, landing softly on her mattress.

"Good morning, Lucy!" he greeted cheerfully, as if he technically hadn't just broken into her apartment.

"What is it with that boy and doors?" she scowled. The only times she'd ever seen Natsu use an entrance properly was at restaurants, and that was likely only because he understood he wouldn't get service otherwise.

"That's Natsu for ya," Happy stated simply as his feathery wings disappeared. "So, you ready to start your special training?"

"I'd say she's ready," Natsu said as he once again appeared at her window, looking rather gleeful for someone wearing a dark shoeprint across his face. Lucy sighed in resignation as he crawled inside, plopping down on her bed next to his cat. "That's a pretty nice kick you got there. We'll definitely build on that."

After Laxus and the Thunder Legion had left yesterday, Lucy had inquired to her friends about helping her become a more capable wizard. Despite having been practicing her Celestial Magic since inheriting her Golden Keys years ago, she knew she didn't have the same power, experience and application in the real world as her guildmates of similar age, and it was something she wanted to improve on. Not only that, but she understood her physical abilities needed strengthening, as well. After her battle with Sherry, she realized she needed to toughen herself up if her spirits were for some reason rendered unavailable. She was a fairly athletic girl with a basic understanding of hand-to-hand combat, but she was in the big leagues now, and she'd have to have more than that in her arsenal.

Initially she approached Cana, a fellow Holder-Type mage who was also a certifiable ass-kicker, but when Natsu overheard, he immediately volunteered to coach her. Lucy's first reaction was to decline when she saw his eyes flash mischievously, but after Lisanna vouched for how training with him had helped her substantially, and that she was also willing to help, the blonde hesitantly agreed. She hoped she hadn't gotten herself into anything too crazy, but Happy's snickering hadn't been the most encouraging sign.

"Trust me, by the time you've run through my courses, you'll be -" the Dragon Slayer began with a smile as they walked to their headquarters, but he quickly stopped with a distracted look on his face. Even faster, his expression morphed into one of dread.

"Hey, what's up?" Lucy asked with concern.

Natsu took off in a run before he could respond, with Lucy and Happy following suit, shouting at his back to tell them what was wrong. It wasn't long before they could make out the guild hall in the distance, although the building seemed distorted, with strange extensions poking out. Drawing nearer and nearer, the picture finally made sense. The extensions were thick metal clubs that had been blasted all through the walls of their once-proud base, leaving it in a state of sickening wreckage.

"What happened here?" he demanded through his teeth as they came up to the devastated crowd of wizards and citizens assembling before the mess. He had heard their shaken murmuring from afar, leading him down to the commotion.

"Natsu..." Lisanna said softly as he grouped up with the Strauss family, her hand held over her heart. Elfman appeared just as furious as him, while Mira scowled at the ruins with her arms crossed. "It happened overnight... It's so awful..."

"Phantom Lord did this," the older white-haired girl spat venomously. The three who had just arrived looked over everyone's heads, and indeed noticed a swirling black symbol painted on the double doors. Even if Mira hadn't just named the culprits, Lucy would've immediately recognized the mocking graffiti as the emblem of the guild regarded to rival Fairy Tail.

"Those bastards..." Natsu trembled with rage. "They're gonna pay for this!"

"Damn right they are," Gray uttered icily, appearing with an equally-perturbed Loke and Cana. "No way we're taking this lying down."

The crowd started to buzz once more as Master Makarov took a few steps forward, trailed by Erza. They turned to face them with stony gazes, as Makarov invoked his Titan Magic to grow over twelve feet tall, for the sake of those in the back rows. "My children," he said, trying to sound steady, but the pain in his voice was audibly distinguishable. "I know how you must all be feeling. We have just been subjected to this senseless vandalism, and I understand that revenge is hungrily gnawing at your very cores."

The wizards, and even a good portion of regular Magnolians, cried out in support of the statement.

"But," the Master continued pointedly, deflating the cheers, "this is not something that we can respond to. As much as we would all love to take matters into our own hands, this act of cowardly aggression is for the Magic Council to handle. This kingdom has no need for its top two guilds to go to war over something that is, in the long run, insignificant. Yes, it hurts to see our beautiful guild hall ruined as so, but they cannot break the spirit that it housed as long as you remain strong. Phantom Lord will be punished accordingly by the Council, and we will keep our heads high as we rebuild our hall with more glory than ever before!"

This part of his speech elicited a more polarized response. While the citizens were swept by the glowing good nature of Makarov's vision, the members of his guild voiced their dissatisfaction. "You mean we're just supposed to sit around and wait for the Magic Council to make a move?" Mira asked with narrowed eyes.

"If you think we're gonna leave it up to them, then you're dead wrong, Gramps!" Natsu added. "_We're_ the ones that gotta take it to Phantom Lord!"

"The Master has spoken," Erza intoned strictly, focusing her gaze on the two. "The consequences of a war between two guilds as powerful as Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord would be felt throughout the entirety of Fiore. To engage them would not only invite catastrophe to the surroundings, but it would be a dark affair that could result in tolling losses to both sides. Master Makarov has concluded that retaliation is an unwise course of action, and you _will_ adhere to his verdict."

The fire within Lucy that would've driven her on the same path of vengeance as her friends began to flicker out. Erza's unhappy expression as she spoke on Makarov's behalf told her that she also wanted to afflict Phantom Lord with just measures, but her words had reached the blonde's senses. Lucy understood why it would be best to be the bigger guild in all of this, even if the some of her mates had yet to comprehend.

"Fortunately, no one was around when this atrocity took place, so there are no injuries to report," Makarov began again, trying to settle some of the more unruly wizards with a breezy smile. "After an inspection of the damage, Erza and I found the basement to have been untouched. Thus, it will serve as our temporary center of operations while construction on the new hall is ongoing."

With that, he reverted back down to his normal stature, and walked with Erza to the side of the building as the other wizards began to follow. They opened the cellar doors and made their way down the steps to the basement, which Lucy was surprised to see so well-maintained. Dust was no issue, and the old tables that were spread evenly on the floor made it seem that this had been set up ahead of time, in case of such an emergency. A blank request board was also nailed to the wall, with a stack of copied flyers resting on a crate of alcohol next to it ready to be put up.

Most of Lucy's closer friends seemed to have accepted Makarov's decision, but Natsu was still grumbling about it as they occupied the circular tables. "I can't believe he doesn't want us to fight back," he said with a frown. "Phantom Lord needs to learn just what happens if you mess with Fairy Tail. At the very least Gramps could let me go after the guy who did this. His stench's all over the place upstairs, so it wouldn't be all that hard to track him down."

"Natsu, you know the Master's got a point," Cana said, having procured a whole barrel from the storage corner to take some of the edge off. Normally she would've kept it to herself, but she knew the others could use it just as much if they wanted to partake. "Think of it this way: if Laxus was running the guild, what do you think he'd do?"

"He'd lead the charge personally and destroy them," he replied affirmatively, without seeing what the problem was.

"I don't think you get it," Happy took it upon himself to explain. "She means we should probably be doing the opposite of what Laxus would want."

"Oh," he said as the realization dawned on him. Associating confrontation with the master's antagonistic grandson shifted his perspective, easily accomplished by how the Lightning Wizard had acted the previous day.

"I still don't think we should be waiting for the Council's judgment," Mirajane said, remaining unpleased. "Since no one was hurt, and as far as we know no person was targeted, they can only construe this as property damage. Those Council geezers have never liked Fairy Tail, but they've been pretty lax with us whenever we've destroyed anything. Even though this was done with intent, I don't see Phantom Lord getting punished all that severely because of that precedent."

Before anyone could dispute that, Loke spoke up. "But what if they _do_ have some kind of target?" Everyone turned to him, as he prepared his rationalization. "Honestly, Phantom Lord has nothing to gain from doing this. Everyone knows of the rivalry between us, but lashing out in this manner, without provocation, will just turn the public against them. I'm not saying their plan is to come after someone for sure, but there's gotta be a bigger reason they'd stake their reputation like this, something we're not seeing."

Lucy suddenly got a bad feeling in her stomach at his theory, fearing for the safety of her friends. "But what reason could they have for coming after someone here?"

"This is probably nothing more than a sorry cry for attention," Elfman growled, waving off Loke's thoughts. "They're just bitter over the fact that Fairy Tail's become the manliest guild in Fiore, so they decided to take a cheap shot."

"But what if he's right? What if this isn't just posturing, and Phantom Lord _is_ planning something else?" Gray pondered. "What if this was just a way for them to let us know they're up to something? They're arrogant enough to pull something like that."

"If that's the case," Levy said, having joined with the boys of Shadow Gear during the middle of the conversation, "then we should play it safe and watch each other's backs for the next couple of days. We have no idea what they're after, but if they wanted to escalate things, then we should stick together and keep them from having the opportunity."

"Good idea, Levy," Lisanna commended before turning to the blonde in the group. "Lucy, would you wanna come over to stay with us at Fairy Hills for a few nights?"

"I believe you should," Erza said, walking up to the tables and laying a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "If Phantom Lord was looking to build on what they did to the hall, then a new member to the guild that happens to live by herself would be an ideal target. I doubt any of their wizards outside of their S-Class would stand a chance against someone with your skill, Lucy, but it's an unnecessary risk we shouldn't be taking at a time like this. I will gladly share one of my rooms with you at Fairy Hills."

"Thanks, guys," Lucy said with a smile, her heart warming at the invitation. She hadn't thought of her apartment as vulnerable, but then she remembered the way Natsu had entered through her window as easily as an unlocked door that very morning. The way their camaraderie had extended to her so seamlessly since joining Fairy Tail, it was lovely to feel.

"You know, the boys don't have a collective dorm like you girls do," Jet began with a sly smirk. "We're all fending for ourselves out there."

His partner in crime immediately picked up on his direction. "So, what if we came over, too, to mutually look out for one another?" Droy continued with a matching grin. "We could definitely help fortify your defenses so no Phantom Lord punks even think of going near Fairy Hills. What do you ladies say? Levy?"

"Absolutely not," Erza mandated without another word from anyone else. "If you boys don't feel secure being on your own, you can simply follow our example. I'm certain Natsu and Gray have already decided to bunk together, so perhaps Loke or Elfman could take you in." The fire and ice mages nervously nodded along to placate her thought, and the other two did the same when their names were thrown out. "However, you will certainly not be staying at the girls' dormitories, where boys are not permitted. We're not at a point where we need to break its most important rule."

"If it makes you guys feel better, the three of us could all room together," Levy offered brightly to her teammates. "We're Team Shadow Gear, we'll be alright as long as we're there to protect one another!"

"Levy, you're the best!" Jet and Droy cheered in adoration, sandwiching the girl in a tight hug.

"I suppose that's fine, since you're a long-standing team," Erza said, even though she wasn't exactly comfortable with their male-to-female ratio. "Now that we have an outline for the boarding situation, Lucy, I'll accompany you to your apartment so you can gather some of your belongings. The rest of you, carry on as you would."

"Aye!" Natsu and Gray piped when she turned to the pair, Happy chuckling as they threw their arms around each other's shoulders.

**- 0 -**

Lucy awoke peacefully the next morning - until she brushed against the arm around her waist. Suddenly alert, she slowly looked behind her, and was only slightly relieved that it was Erza's hold she was in. Even with her beautiful red hair strewn over her face, she still appeared quite delighted at having someone to cuddle with. Lucy almost laughed at the situation as her heartbeat resumed its normal rhythm.

She thought back to the night before as she moved Erza's arm away and sat up in bed. It had been a lot of fun touring the facility and gossiping away with the company of Lisanna, Mira, Cana and Erza. She was disappointed Levy hadn't been there to join in on the occasion, but she did take comfort in getting to better familiarize herself with some of the other Fairy Tail girls like Bisca and Laki.

The blonde turned back to Erza, and wondered just how they ended up in the same bed together. She had been shocked to learn of Erza's multiple rented rooms, most of which were filled with her special armors and various outfit combinations. However, she did have two bedrooms, and had allowed for Lucy to sleep in her spare quarters.

She watched as Erza began to stir, cutely patting around the mattress in search for her lost snuggle buddy. She opened her eyes with a small pout, but then her cheeks flushed pink when she noticed Lucy sitting up on the edge of her bed. "Morning, Erza," she smiled.

"Good morning, Lucy," she answered, reclining against the headrest, sounding as if nothing was out of routine despite her slight blush. "I see that perhaps there was some confusion over the sleeping arrangement, but it's no matter. I hope you're well-rested?"

"Yeah, I feel great," Lucy assured her. But before anything else could be said between the bedmates, a loud, desperate pounding was heard behind their door.

"Erza! Lucy!" Lisanna shouted at them. "You guys have to hurry! Please!"

Sensing something horribly awry, Erza jumped out from under the sheets, Requipping out of her lavender pajamas and into her Heart Kreuz armor. Lucy was grateful that she hadn't chosen anything too skimpy to wear to sleep, slipping into her sandals quickly as they took off. They spotted Lisanna continuing down the hallway alerting everyone else, and it wasn't long before all the tenants of Fairy Hills were rushing out of the dorm, following the white-haired girl and Happy.

The flying cat, with watery eyes, lead them down to South Gate Park, where a large crowd not unlike the one from yesterday was growing. Erza authoritatively got the citizens to move aside, joining up with some of the stricken male wizards at the front (who were in an even more considerable state of undress). They all gazed up at what had the boys so mortified, causing some of their numbers to begin crying.

Braced to the park's great tree with metal cuffs around their wrists, hung the bruised and battered trio of Shadow Gear.

"Levy... Jet... Droy..." Lucy whispered, unable to control the tears streaming down her face.

Thankfully, she was able to take her eyes off the sight when the crowd parted once more. This time, a single figure walked through, his short footsteps heavy as they practically stomped on the ground. Makarov looked at the scene, exhaling loudly as he gripped his wooden staff.

"The destruction of my guild hall, I could tolerate," he began steadily, before being enveloped by a quaking glow of transcendent power, "but never, _never_ will I accept my children being harmed!" His staff shattered into splinters from the immense pressure as he lasered in on the mark crudely painted on Levy's stomach. "_Phantom Lord! This, is war!_"

* * *

><p><em>And so it begins. This chapter was the most difficult one to write so far, but I do believe really believe it's solid stuff. I finally got to introduce Laxus, and I decided to take the chance to do the same for the Thunder Legion. Also, a show of hands for those that would like to see Lucy at Fairy Hills as an installment in Sidestories? I can make it happen, you know.<em>

_I do hope you enjoyed the chapter, and it is also a hope of mine that you come back for the next one. Also, I hope you leave a review, as well. Those are fun._


	12. Phantom Lord Arc - Part 2

_The Phantom Lord arc was one of my favorites in the series, definitely a highlight for Fairy Tail. That said, I realized to do it justice, I'd be needing four chapters instead of just three. So, here's part dos, coming at you live!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12<br>- Take 'Em By Storm -**

Lucy had wanted to go along with the rest of the guild to Oak Town. She wanted, just as much as anyone else, to avenge what had become of Levy, Jet and Droy. Unfortunately, the incensed availability of Fairy Tail had left without her to face off against Phantom Lord as she saw to Shadow Gear getting the medical help they needed. The only one that had stayed behind with her was Happy.

"What they did to the guild hall is one thing," Lucy said softly with the cat on her lap as she sat beside the unconscious figure of Levy in the hospital, "but actually going after our friends, that's absolutely heartless."

"I'm really sorry this happened to them," Happy nodded sadly. He'd initially taken off with the rest of the guild, but turned back when he noticed Lucy wasn't among them, with support from his best friends. He knew he could be of more help with the injured than he would be in the battle that was about to take place. "I promise, Phantom Lord isn't gonna get away with this. I believe in the others."

Lucy could just picture the scene at Magnolia Station with the tiniest smile she had at the moment, as all their guildmates packed every train car as tightly as possible on the way to their enemies' central headquarters in Oak Town. Even Natsu had to have been fired up enough to take initiative and be one of the first to board, motion sickness be damned.

She cradled Levy's hand that rested outside of the bedsheets and remembered the first time they'd met. It had been her second day at the guild, in front of the request board with Natsu, Lisanna and Happy. She'd picked out a job for them, without knowing it was the very one Levy and the boys had been planning to take themselves. In that brief period where she'd seen the blue-haired girl at an elated high as she talked about books, and a despondent low when Natsu scolded Shadow Gear and claimed the job for his team, she'd been touched by her genuine openness. So touched, that the novel she'd been writing and was never supposed to be read, was waiting in her drawer for editing so it'd be presentable to Levy.

"After this is all over, I'll have my story ready for you," she said as she and Happy pooled their faith together. "I really hope that you'll like it."

**- 0 -**

"So Gajeel, I heard about what you did to those fairies," a self-important Phantom Lord wizard said as he walked up to the bar.

Gajeel ignored him, deciding that the loud crunching from his metallic meal was a better use of his ears than listening to this idiot.

Of course, the idiot didn't have a strong sense for picking up subtlety. "Man, I wish I would've been there to see the look on their faces when they found their guild hall in shambles, and oh, the money I would've paid to have been there when you took those three losers out last -"

Fed up, Gajeel's arm rocketed straight into the man's jaw. The gleaming steel beam it had been become to clobber his mate's face retracted slower than it had first erupted, deliberately so all in the guild would know he had a point to make. "I've already told all of you not to bother me wile I'm eating," he began quietly as he continued to chomp at the serving before him. After the pause for dramatics, his tone went up an octave. "If I ever have to repeat that one more time, I'll take your sorry ass down to Magnolia and leave you at the fairies' mercy! Got that?!"

Before the establishment filled with the unruly men could stammer out a collective response, their guild doors were blasted off their hinges with a rocking explosion. As the cries of shock died down and the smoke began to clear, they were able to witness the scowling pink-haired perpetrator, and the legion of wizards behind him.

"You got two things wrong there," he growled at the man picking at his teeth with a nail.

"The first is that you don't have to trouble yourselves with coming down to Magnolia," a short elder said from behind his mustache as he stepped to the front of the group. The grand majority of the men could only stare in fear at his monstrous presence. "And the second, is that Fairy Tail has _no mercy_ for you!"

Gajeel smirked as the claim, flicking the nail away. "So you decided to come out and play," he said, holding his arms out. Keeping his eyes as their rival guild slowly encroached, he addressed his men. "Let's be hospitable, now!"

With a roar that was immediately matched by the other side, Phantom Lord jumped to force Fairy Tail out of their turf. However, their efforts weren't up to scale to the drive Makarov's children possessed at the moment, and they pushed through the barricades of bodies that had formed around them.

"Fire Dragon's Wings!" Natsu bellowed as he charged, both of his arms enveloped in swirling flames. Fanning them out and then swinging them together, he carved an opening as he launched his fire through the horde of Phantom Lord members, sending them flying through the air with thick smoke trailing their singed clothes.

"Ice-Make Lance!" Gray shouted, putting his misting hands together to torpedo multiple arrows of ice with shredding tips. They spread out and curved as they left his fists, considerably extending his strike zone to include enemies who ignorantly believed themselves to be out of his attack's range.

"Elephant Soul!" Lisanna cried, Taking Over into a hulking, leathery mass. She caught them off-guard with an unlikely burst of speed, lowering her trumpeting head to barrel a path through the opposing wizards in front of her, knocking them senseless with the velocity propelling her frame.

"Cero Doble!" Cana yelled, activating one of her favorite cards. A pink ball of light flitted about for a second before stopping to fire a devastating beam of energy. While several of her targets were struck, some managed to jump out of the way. Little did they know, a second pink orb behind them unleashed a follow-up blast.

Makarov walked through the fighting with an absolute sense of purpose, an aura of golden magic surging around him that effortlessly knocked aside any men of Phantom Lord that ventured too close. "Erza! Mira! You know what you must do!" he called out to them as he began to ascend the flight of stairs that lead to the higher floors. "Ensure this battle! I will see to Jose!"

"Yes, Master!" the pair of girls replied. Erza displayed her great weapons mastery as she slashed away any attempts to harm her, and cut down their casters with an assortment of blades and spears that she Requipped endlessly. Mira employed her Darkness Magic to decimate her enemies, using various spells powerful enough to wipe them out without even needing to amplify their strength with a demonic Take Over.

"Looks like these guys aren't all talk," Gajeel admitted, still grinning as he watched his forces being trounced. Amidst the chaos, he'd jumped up to the low rafters, hanging upside down from them by the sharp extensions jutting through his boots. No one had yet to notice the disappearance of Phantom Lord's most dangerous, or that their strongest team had also been absent the whole time...

"Hardlight Shield!" Loke cried, creating a large, translucent lion's head with his index ring to block a barrage of return fire at Alzack and Bisca, who'd been sniping away with their brands of Guns Magic. They thanked him for the save, getting a reply in the form of a nod from Loke and a roar from his shield, as he sent it rushing forward to collide with their attackers.

"Savage Arm - Lizardman!" Elfman shouted as his right arm was covered with green scales and black ridges. With the density of his packed, protected muscles, he was able to absorb a series of magical beams aimed at him and his surrounding allies without so much as a scratch. He pounced on the offensive, using his great claw to pummel those in his way.

As Makarov continued to climb up, he kept an ear out as his Fairy Tail children dominated in convincing fashion. They supported each other defensively and responded with ferocity. The youngsters kept up the tireless onslaught, while the older members like Macao and Wakaba showed off the skills that made them names back in their day. Even the guild oddball Laki had tapped into her potential and impressively lashed out. Everyone was fighting together as one entity, and his heart resolved as he drew nearer to the Guild Master's office.

Gajeel, still in the same spot as before, had been following Makarov through his scent. He grinned as his smell grew fainter. "You're almost up, Aria," he said. A gust of wind blew back his hair, as the most powerful of the Element Four appeared, standing on top of the beam that he was hanging from. "Juvia and Sol are making their move right now, so you better get into position, too."

"Very well," Aria said, as tears began to leak through his eye bandages. "How sad... Soon, the light of a Wizard Saint will be extinguished, and the world will be left darker for the loss."

"Whatever," Gajeel rolled his eyes at the crying. "Now that things are all lined up, I'm gonna head down there and have some fun for myself while I still can."

Aria inclined his head, as he disappeared with the same wind that had brought him there. "Keep in mind this is only supposed to be a trial of what's to come. Don't allow yourself to get carried away," his voice, floated by the sweeping air, reached Gajeel. Master Jose had a brilliantly-formulated plan that needed perfect execution; now was not the time for him to indulge his craving for conflict. The real festival had yet to begin between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail.

**- 0 -**

Lucy exited the flower shop, the aroma from her purchase soothing her spirits. With Happy remaining by Shadow Gear's side in case of anything, she had decided to head across the street to pick up a little something for the room containing the trio's unconscious figures. If she remembered correctly, the black lilac was the symbol of the novel series' mysterious group that Levy had named her team after. Lucy hoped she would appreciate the thought when she woke up, but not as much as she hoped that her simply waking would be sometime soon.

Her train of thought was derailed when she felt a droplet land on her cheek. Surprised, she looked up, only to see a gray cloud formulating in the sky directly above her. "That's so weird," she commented as more drizzle began to fall.

"Drip, drip, drop," an emotionless voice said from behind. Lucy turned around, and spotted a pale woman with blue hair, protected from the sudden sprinkle with a cute pink parasol. "Do you not enjoy the rain?" she asked, her boots clicking on the cobblestones as she approached the blonde.

"I like the rain just fine," Lucy answered with a shrug. "It's just, this came out of nowhere. I never would've thought we'd be getting rain today, since there weren't any clouds at all earlier. Oh well. At least you were prepared, though."

The lady in blue observed the kind smile the girl directed at her. "Preparation is vital," she offered cryptically, looking away with what Lucy figured to be remorse. As much as she would've liked to have asked what the matter was, she wanted to get the flowers back to Levy and the boys. As she began to proceed again, the parasol-wielding girl called out to her. "Please, wait."

Lucy paused as requested. "Is something wrong? Are you okay?" she asked, wondering why the young woman suddenly became so downcast.

Even though her clothes were beginning to get soaked and the flowers in her hand started bending under the weight of the water, this blonde girl seemed more concerned over her melancholic disposition. She'd even smiled at her, as if they were friends. No one had ever been so warm to Juvia before, and it began to pain her to know what she had to do next.

"Pardon me, _mademoiselle_," a new voice, male this time, asked in a thick accent. Checking at her back, Lucy saw a wriggling figure sprouting up from the ground, as if he were made of clay. He was injected with color as his features were made distinct, revealing a smirk under his pointy green mustache.

"Can I help you, sir?" she asked, immediately feeling creeped out by his sideways monocled stare. She now wished that Happy had come outside with her, if nothing else than for his spectacularly smart mouth to send the man away.

"You may call me Monsieur Sol," he answered with a chuckle as his body began to sway from his waist. "And now, if you could tell us who you are, _s'il vous plait?_"

Lucy noticed his use of the word 'us'. She looked to the woman again, who seemed to be avoiding her gaze now. Dread spread through her as she got the picture of what was going on. "What do you want? You're wizards from Phantom Lord, aren't you?" she demanded, anger mixing in with her fear.

"_Oui, oui,_ you are as _brillant_ as your hair _d'or_," Sol nodded as his grin grew. "We are members of the Element Four, the most powerful team in the most powerful guild. This _belle_ with _moi_ is 'The Rainfall' Juvia, and I am Sol, 'The Wasteland of Desolation'. As for what we want, _mon cheri_, well, we have been looking for _vous_."

"Me? What for?" Lucy began to reach for her keys, leaving nothing to chance. She hoped Happy would look out the window for the rain, and notice something else was wrong through her body language, but then she remembered there was no one he could go to for help.

"We've been asked to bring you back to our guild hall," Juvia answered softly. "Will you come with us peacefully?"

"No way," Lucy snarled. "After what you've done to us, to Fairy Tail and Levy and her team, I'd never go along with whatever it is you're planning. You guys probably don't even have a guild hall to go back to, anyway, since the rest of my friends decided to return the favor."

Sol continued to snicker. "Ah, so you believe," he said, slinking his strange plastic-like frame to twist around Lucy. "But it has already been decided. Fairy Tail will lose, and you will be presented to Master Jose. Now, I will ask again: come with us, _tranquillement,_ Lucy Heartfilia?"

Lucy froze upon hearing her last name. No one was supposed to know who she really was. A million questions race through her mind, but she could only extrapolate one potential answer for what - or rather, who - was truly behind this situation...

She flipped open her case as Sol retreated away from her, but before she could remove one of her keys, she was ensnared in a suffocating sphere of water. In her shock, she accidentally knocked her case off her belt, and desperately tried to turn to reach them as they sank to the bottom. However, she was constricted to only the simplest of thrashing, her breath beginning to run short as she instead tried to claw out of the bubble. Her efforts only served to burn more of her oxygen, as her lungs screamed for air, and her limbs slowed to a near complete stop. The last thing she heard was Juvia speaking to her, but as her consciousness slipped, she wasn't sure whether she actually picked up sympathy in her tone, or whether she just imagined it.

"You will be cared for at Phantom Lord," Juvia said, right before Lucy faded under her Water Lock. "It is your father's wish to see you once more, and we will honor his request to return you to him unharmed."

**- 0 -**

Makarov stepped onto the long hallway, knowing from the grandeur of its decor that the Guild Master's office rested through the doorway at the end. He scoffed at the gaudiness of Jose. As if he needed to prove Phantom Lord's superiority, he had to have a castle for a guild hall, and if the rumors were true, the building could also transform into some giant mechanical being. The diminutive Wizard Saint took it as a sign of how out of touch Jose's organization was with the humility that was supposed to come with being a service to the public. He would almost think it was sad, if he wasn't about to lay waste to it all.

As the weaker members of the guild had done, the doors burst at the proximity of Makarov's rage manifested. The broken pieces scattered across the room, hitting several objects, but missed his primary target.

Jose sat behind his desk, casting him an amused look with his chin supported by his fist. "Ah, Makarov. To what do I owe the honor?" he asked casually, but there was no mistaking, he understood what was going on. "It's been what, six years now?"

"I'm not here to speak, Jose," he answered, remaining calm under the sneer of his adversary. "You destroyed my guild hall, and I was willing to allow the Magic Council to oversee due process. But when you hurt my children, without any provocation, I had to answer to your trespass myself."

"Without provocation, you say?" Jose asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose I can understand why you'd believe that. But you see, my client gave me and my wizards free reign to do as we saw fit in order to satisfy the mission he gave us."

Makarov's frown deepened. "Someone hired you to attack Fairy Tail? Who was it?"

Jose laughed, a chilling sound as he rose from his seat. He walked to the other side of his desk, reclining against it with arms crossed. "The job wasn't to attack Fairy Tail. No, you see, it was to retrieve the daughter of the famed Heartfilia family."

"And what does that heiress have to do with my guild?"

"You mean you don't know?" Jose grinned again. "You honestly had no idea who you were housing in that madhouse of yours?" He spread out one of his arms as his hand began glowing, creating a flickering projection on the ground. It was a girl laying still with her eyes closed, her blonde hair tied up in a familiar ponytail on the side of her head.

"Lucy?" Makarov's heart skipped a beat at the sight. The newest member to Fairy Tail didn't have any exterior wounds he could see, but she was clearly unconscious, with her hands tied behind her back. "What have you done with her?" he asked quietly.

"We've completed the first part of our mission," Jose smirked. "We've retrieved Lucy Heartfilia, as requested by her dear father, Jude. Now here's where he left things open to interpretation for us. He wanted to make sure Fairy Tail would trouble his family no more, so it would be left just a brief and unfortunate chapter in the life of his fair daughter. I have decided that to accomplish this, I will destroy every remnant of your guild, so it would be just a not-as-brief but equally-unfortunate chapter in _my_ life."

Makarov absorbed this, as his aura burst even more forcefully than before. "You would truly take things so far?"

"Yes," the man in the black cloak answered with a vindictive smirk, "I would."

Fairy Tail's Master roared in response, summoning his near-infinite power to obliterate the man in front of him. Unfortunately, he never accounted for the man behind him.

Aria moved through the airspace with the gentlest breeze he could muster, his most cursing spell at the ready. With both of his hands held apart, he cast a pair of magic circles around the unsuspecting Makarov. Blinded by fury, he was unable to react in time as Aria's hex took effect. The leader of the Element Four felt Makarov's magic rapidly siphoned from his small frame, his vitality depleting by the second.

"Your lifeforce softly billows about the room," Aria commented tearfully as Makarov's skin turned a deathly green. "The vaster your magic, the stronger my Drain spell is. How sad, to be the perfect crux for ending the life of a Wizard Saint."

Jose cackled as Makarov crumpled to the floor in a heap. "And people thought you were supposed to be my equal," he taunted as he raised his hand, enveloped in pitch-black energy. "You should've known you were never a match for Phantom Lord! This is the price for your arrogance, Makarov!"

**- 0 -**

For all of those brazen fairies that charged right into the thick of battle, there were still those that lingered in the back, only taking shots as they presented themselves. It was pathetic, the way they cowardly blasted away with their feeble magic at just the most opportunistic moments. Gajeel flattened them for their lack of spine as he descended into the fray, laughing as their agonized cries rang out.

"What's the matter?" he asked as he swept away three such mages with a single swing of his extended metal arm. "You can't avenge what happened to your friends if you're back here pissin' your pants!"

His words seemed to have struck a nerve in one of the boys, who stupidly attempted to make a move at him. Gajeel smirked as he swatted away his lame attack with the back of his hand, then launched his club straight at his terrified face.

However, it never got the chance to break his teeth, as it was halted by the fiery hands of the wizard who'd wrecked the doors. "I was wondering when you were gonna come down from your little hiding spot," he said severely. "You're the one who destroyed our guild hall and hurt Team Shadow Gear."

"Guilty," Gajeel confirmed with a smirk as he retracted his arm. "And you're the one they call The Salamander, aren't you? The Fire Dragon Slayer."

Natsu nodded. "They told me Phantom Lord had a Dragon Slayer, too. The Iron Dragon Slayer. I've actually got some questions I'd like to ask you, but I don't think you'll be in any shape to be giving answers once I'm through."

The dark-haired man chuckled at his threat. "Finally. Someone with a pair."

Natsu crouched into a fighting stance, unable to hold back a smirk at the challenge he made for himself. "I'm gonna incinerate all of this for what you did to my friends!" he vowed as his flames surrounded his whole body. "By the time I'm finished with Phantom Lord, there won't even be ashes left!"

Gajeel roared invitingly as he leapt forward. With his hardened knuckles, he was able to counteract the fire-enhanced punch Natsu tried to strike him with. The impact of the clash rang throughout the hall, noticeable to even those in the midst of their own fighting. They exchanged a series of blows, with no one able to land a significant advantage until Gajeel went for an overhead swipe with his beam-like arm. Natsu blocked the initial attack high with his forearm, but a second club was shot from the middle of the beam, catching him right in the abdomen.

He used his moment to roll back to his feet, but remained doubled over, clutching his stomach. Mirajane, the person he tumbled next to, turned to him with a smile after she blasted another section of the horde. "'Black Steel' Gajeel's an S-Class Wizard, you know," she said as her wicked eyes met the man's. "Maybe you should leave him to me."

"No!" Natsu denied her edgily. "He's mine!"

With increasing determination, he went back at Gajeel with a flurry of blazing moves. The Iron Dragon Slayer kept up with deflecting him at first, but the new level Natsu had powered himself to eventually managed to secure a red-hot kick to the chest that sent him sprawling back. He regained his traction a second later, and rubbed his seared skin, grinning wildly at his opponent. Unfortunately, the cold wind that filled around him signified this phase of their plan was done.

"I'm glad you're not letting me down, Salamander," he began knowingly. "I was hoping you'd be a fun little match for me. It's a shame I won't be able to finish you off right here and now, but at least that means I've still got something to look forward to later."

Natsu frowned. "What're you talking about? You just gonna run out on me now that you're losing?"

Gajeel scoffed. "Me, losing? Don't get cocky. And running out's not my style, either. No, actually, it's _you_, and your little band of fairies, that're about to bolt outta here with your tails between your legs after you see what we've done with your Master."

Before Natsu and Mira could ask what he was alluding to, a violent thread of crashes was heard by all, growing louder as whatever was causing it grew closer. It wasn't long before the ceiling of the first floor broke, and a tiny figure cratered into the ground below. The fighting paused as they recognized the discolored Makarov, and his children immediately ran to his aid.

"Master!" Erza cried as she pulled him in close. "What's happened to you?"

"Erza..." he choked weakly, his narrowed eyes glossed over. "They've taken... Lucy..."

The Fairy Tail wizards gasped at the news, but they weren't given the chance to mull the detail over. The Phantom Lord mages resumed their attack, taking out a few of them before some of their more formidable numbers jumped in defense of their fallen leader.

"What did you bastards do to Gramps?!" Natsu roared at Gajeel. "And what're you planning to do with Lucy?!"

"Didn't you say that you weren't gonna leave me able to answer you back?" he sneered, pressuring him to return to the brawl.

The Fire Dragon Slayer was about to charge headlong at his enemy, but an armored hand squeezing tightly on his shoulder prevented him from doing so. He turned around to see Erza holding him back, her bangs shrouding her eyes. She'd entrusted Makarov to the care of Elfman's burly arms, to take on the mantle of commander now that the head was out.

"We have to retreat, Natsu," she spoke with a finality that left him at a loss for words. "Master Makarov has been gravely injured, and if we don't get him to help as soon as we can, he won't survive."

"Some of us can stay and fight!" Gray tried to argue. "While you guys get Gramps -"

"No!" Mira cut him off darkly. "With Master defeated, our morale has sunk. Just look around. How many of us could still go on? Not nearly enough to make it out, and we're not gonna let anyone get killed, understand?"

Gray and the other restless figures did as they were told, and scanned the building. The heart that Fairy Tail had displayed storming into Phantom Lord was only visible in just their little handful. The faces on the grand majority of their members told the story. They no longer believed they had any chance of winning. They were defeated.

"What about Lucy?" Lisanna demanded. "We can't just abandon her! We have to do something to help her!"

"We will!" Cana called over her shoulder as she shepherded the wounded, Macao and Wakaba covering an angle to escape. "But we don't know anything about what they've done with her! All we can guess is that she can't be here yet, it'd be too soon for them to arrive from Magnolia! Once we get out of here, I'll find her!"

As much as Elfman hated to lead the way out of the guild, when there were others in worse shape that needed to evacuate first, he had to do it for Makarov's sake. "Come on! We have to move, otherwise the Master's not gonna make it!" he urged them as he cradled the elder's limp body protectively.

All of the able wizards not providing covering fire grabbed the injured and helped them along, expediting their retreat. However, Phantom Lord took this as blood in the water, and refused to let up their assault. Natsu and Gray staunchly lead the last line, drawing their attacks and holding them off with their own, but they could only do so much as their help gradually diminished. When the final lingerers remained, Loke pushed past the fire and ice mages.

"You two get going! I got this!" he commanded, holding his glowing fist out to deflect any incoming beams. Trusting in his tone, the pair turned their backs and headed for the exit. Now that none of his allies were there to get caught in his spell, the light from Loke's hands magnified all around him. "Zenith of Regulus!"

The whole of the first floor was illuminated with the equivalent of a solar flare. Phantom Lord's members all cried out, as not even their eyelids could withstand the radiant intensity of the light. Minutes passed before they regained some semblance of sight, but they didn't need their distorted vision to see that Fairy Tail was already long gone.

Gajeel grinned as the men that hadn't been defeated during the the invasion began to holler in celebration. Normally he would've barked at them to shut up, since their real victory was far from attained, but he allowed them to enjoy the moment. He himself couldn't help but laugh along with how the first round had come to an end. It couldn't have gone any more according Master Jose's plan. The fairies had their backs against the wall, with nowhere to go as Phantom Lord took aim to pull the final trigger.

**- 0 -**

Porlyusica came very close to turning down the cowboy with his black mop of hair covering his face, and the girl with her ridiculous dress and hat combination didn't do any favors. However, when it was Makarov Dreyar that they'd brought to her, she couldn't help but sigh and allow him in for treatment. She might've hated humans, but she was loath to admit that a select few had won over her heartstrings. Fairy Tail's Third Master was one such person, and so she'd do her best to keep her little cot from being his deathbed.

"Makarov, you fool," she scowled at him as she placed a towel on his head. After slipping him some of her potions, at least his skin had started to take on more of his natural pigmentation. "What were you thinking, rushing off to fight against another guild? Did you not expect such consequences? We're fortunate that you and Jose didn't obliterate that entire city."

"He did it because he didn't want to see any more of us getting hurt like Team Shadow Gear," Alzack said pointedly. Erza had warned him of Porlyusica's brusque attitude, but he didn't appreciate how she berated their leader when his fate was still undetermined.

The pink-haired woman looked back at him and Bisca with a furious look, and grabbed a beaker filled with a pale blue concoction to fling at them. "What are you still doing here?! You've done what you needed to do and left him to me! Now be gone!"

Bisca kicked away some of the shards of glass on the floor near them with the side of her boots. "You've just been working over him in silence since we arrived. At least let us know how he's doing, something we can tell everyone at the guild."

The train ride back to Magnolia had been incredibly tense. The S-Class girls had ensured all the injured were tended to, while the rest were mystified as to what had happened to Makarov. Without a cause for his condition, they didn't know how they could start treating him. As soon as they arrived in their hometown, Erza had Cana create a map card that would lead Alzack and Bisca, riding on horseback, through the East Forest. They were to take Makarov to Porlyusica, an old acquaintance of his, a bitter recluse that was skilled in the art of remedies.

The elderly woman who once bore their guild mark sighed. "I believe he was the victim of a Drain spell. Considering the Element Four, it would make sense that Aria 'The Atmosphere' would be armed with this ability. It forces your body to release all of your magical powers, the very essence of a wizard. The more magic you possess, the more your lifeforce is uprooted from your being. With Makarov being a Wizard Saint, you can only imagine how especially devastating the technique was against him. It's a wonder how he managed to brace himself to retain just enough of his magic to keep his heart beating."

"Does that mean he'll be fine after a few days, after he gets some of his power back?" Alzack asked, daring to believe.

"Hardly," Porlyusica retorted. "A more likely scenario would be that his magic does not replenish fast enough to attain the levels he needs to keep his body operating. In that situation, he dies."

Bisca and her partner gasped. "There's gotta be something we can do for him!" she pleaded. "Is there a way to transfer our magic into him? I know we'd be nowhere near enough, but I'm sure everyone at the guild would be willing to contribute!"

"And what do you think having so many different magics coursing through him would do? If he weren't able to focus them all, then that would kill him even sooner. The best solution would be to find his lost power somewhere in the sky and return it to him, but more than likely it's already wafted about to who knows where," she snapped. However, it wasn't so much the despondent faces of the pair, but the thought that Makarov was beyond help at this point that bothered her. "However, your Master is a stubborn old man. If he decides he has more to live for, then he will find a way to keep walking towards his ridiculous notions he's always spouted. It wouldn't be the first time he's scorned death, so don't go burying the man while he still draws breath."

Alzack and Bisca nodded solemnly. It wasn't the best news to take back to the guild, but it was hope.

**- 0 -**

As everyone returned to Fairy Tail's basement, Natsu and Lisanna instead rushed over to the hospital where Shadow Gear was admitted. As soon as they entered the building, Happy collided into Lisanna's arms with a slight jingle, tears matting the blue fur on his face.

"Lucy's gone!" he cried. "She said she was going out for just a second, but she never came back! When I went out looking for her, everything was all wet like it'd been raining, and I found her keys on the ground! I don't know what happened!"

"Phantom Lord took her," the scarfed boy uttered quietly.

"Poor Lucy," Lisanna said softly, consoling their little mascot by stroking his head. "Don't worry, we're gonna get her back."

"Aye," Happy concurred, his voice becoming firmer now that he was with friends. "What do you think they want with her?"

They discussed possible reasons why the Celestial Wizard had been taken hostage on their way to the basement, then they filled Happy in with the details over the great battle they'd just waged. After learning what had become of the Master, the cat wasn't surprised to see so many of the guild's members so downtrodden as they nursed their wounds. There was some activity going on by where Makarov had been perched before, and the three worked their way through the small crowd.

"I've got a lock on Lucy," Cana exhaled with a small smile, sitting cross-legged on the desk with a pair of cards and a map in front of her. "She's in Onibus, which means they haven't gotten her back to their guild hall yet." The gathering around her lauded her in relief, but it was only for a second, as the brunette spoke up again. "Hold on - they're not moving north up to Oak Town... It kinda looks like they're coming back down to Magnolia..."

Gray clenched his fist. "They must be coming down here to try to finish us off. They're using her to bait us into fighting again."

"This is what we were afraid of," Erza said, walking up to them with Mira, who was holding a large communications lacrima. The orb's display was fuzzy from the movement, until it was set down next to Cana and her station. "We're in no condition for another battle right now. At best we could deal with Gajeel and the Element Four, but as it stands we have no one to account for Jose. Without Master Makarov, we'd be no match for him if we were first worn down by Phantom Lord's S-Class Wizards."

A familiar joyless laugh met their ears before the picture sharpened to reveal Laxus's smug expression. "Well, I guess you guys are royally screwed," he smirked. "You know, the geezer should've responded when they first destroyed the guild hall. Maybe if he had, he wouldn't have been rendered so blind in his fit of rage after they actually attacked some of his precious little kids, and nearly gotten himself killed. Did he really think they'd just leave it at that? His mind's more far gone than I thought it was."

Mira's usually cool attitude was not in play for his comments. "This isn't the time for you to be trying to move in on his position. We need you and the Thunder Legion to help us, otherwise, we could all be killed, and then there wouldn't be a guild for you to take. Do you understand that?"

"That's a pretty good point," Laxus conceded with a shrug. "I guess it's too bad, then, that the four of us are too far away to make a difference. Thanks to the job we took, we're in Veronica right now. Maybe you've heard of it, it's the neighboring kingdom to Fiore? So even if we _wanted_ to get in on cleaning up for Makarov, there's just no way for us to make it in time to be fashionably late. Sorry, but good luck anyway. We're rootin' for ya."

The transmission ended in the middle of his laughing, as Mira's eyes glowed a dark violet and cracked the lacrima. She would've shattered it, but she didn't want to disturb Cana's set-up as they explored their next option. She moved around behind the desk as Cana got up to stand at the front, Erza remaining where she was. The three strongest women in Fairy Tail joined hands in a triangle over the cards and map, as the whole guild went silent to allow them to focus.

Channeling their energies and sharing their memories of the enigmatic wizard, they were connected for several moments. Natsu and the others watched on anxiously, wishing there was a way they could help. However, no one else in the room had ever laid eyes on the man, making them useless to the card mage's dowsing. At last, she released her friends' hands, sighing in exasperation.

"I couldn't get any kind of read on him," she muttered, hanging her head. "Even with you guys helping amplify my locator spell, Mystogan's somehow able to block us out."

"You did your best," Erza said comfortingly. "Mystogan has never wanted to be found by any of us, and it's within his power to shield himself from our efforts. But, with the situation as dire as it is, I don't believe he would forsake us if there's something he could do to help."

"Yeah, it'd be nice if he were here, but we can still take on Phantom Lord!" Natsu growled rousingly. "We did a number on them back there, too, and I know I can beat that Iron Dragon Slayer! If you guys can take care of the Element Four, then that would leave Erza and Mira to go up against Jose! I know he's a Wizard Saint, but if the two of you team up together, there's no way he'd be able to touch you!"

Mira, Erza, Cana, Gray, Lisanna, Elfman, and Loke all exchanged hardened glances. It was a tall order what Natsu was proposing, despite knowing that Phantom Lord would inevitably come after them once they'd been driven back to their basement. Still, they were Fairy Tail, and if they were going down, they were going to lay out everything they had left.

Macao and Wakaba began preparations as they rallied the rest of the guild, stocking up on magical items to give them an edge. Meanwhile, the core of the new generation huddled together, charting out the ideal counterattack.

"If we can divert everyone else, Erza and Mira would be our best chance to take out Jose," Gray agreed with Natsu's initial thoughts. "Even with you going after Gajeel, that still leaves enough of us to handle the Element Four. We'll try to lead them away from the main forces and match up as best we can against their powers. Most of us will have to go one-on-one, but since there are five of us, it'd be a good idea to form another team to battle their strongest member."

"There won't be five of you," Mira corrected, turning to her brother. "Elfman, you're going to stay back and help the majority. It's too dangerous for you to be fighting against one of the Elements."

"What?!" he objected. "I'm not gonna be left behind! You need me out there with you!"

"I need you where you're not going to be severely outmatched," his big sister glared. "The Element Four are all S-Class Wizards. I'm sorry, but to beat them, we can only afford to send out just those who have completely mastered their magic. You'd only be a liability against them, and I don't want anyone having to concern themselves with looking out for you on a team."

Lisanna reached out and grabbed his shaking hand. "The ground forces need assets, too, and you're strong enough to really give them a boost. Anything beyond that, and we'd be risking too much," she offered him a concerned smile.

Before Elfman could continue to defy his family, the point that the youngest had been approved to face the most harrowing enemies on his tongue, Loke interjected. "Let's not forget where Lucy fits into all of this," he spoke. "If they took her to be bait, then we have to imagine that she'll be guarded by one of their most powerful wizards. Whoever that happens to be, that's who I'll be fighting."

"If you're gonna save Lucy, then you'll have to give these to her," Happy said, presenting him with Lucy's keycase. Loke stiffened at the sight, but didn't allow the pause to grow unnaturally long. With a nod, he grabbed the leather case, and slipped it onto his jacket pocket.

"So we all know what we have to do?" Erza asked, looking at everyone around her. "The odds might be against us, but we're fighting with a purpose. We're not simply out to destroy like Phantom Lord; we are protecting our friends, our family. As long as we keep our reason in our hearts, then we will give them a war they will always regret."

"You guys all hear that?" Cana called out to the everyone else, lifting up an unopened bottle. "If Phantom Lord thinks we're gonna make it easy for them, then we're gonna need to show them that messing with Fairy Tail was the biggest mistake they ever could've made!" The entire membership raised their fists with her, cheering in agreement as their spirits were revitalized. "So get ready! Take your boots, shine 'em up real nice, turn 'em sideways, and when Jose and his punks get here, shove 'em straight up their -"

Interrupting her speech was the cellar door being hastily pried open. Immediately, everyone stood up to ward off an incoming attack, but relaxed their spells when Alzack and Bisca poked their heads inside. Their frightened faces, however, only served to tighten their fists once again.

"Come outside! Quick!" they shouted simultaneously. As the pack climbed the stairs, the gunslinging duo lead them around to the back, where all the questions about the Master were misplaced by the nightmare in the distance. A colossal figure was slowly making its way towards them, crossing through the vast lake behind the guild hall.

It was extremely tall, towering over even the largest buildings in Magnolia. The main design around the body was simple, but the upper torso and head were reminiscent of a certain castle. Its lumbering steps summoned great waves that rocked against the cliff walls, the spray even landing on some of the closer members. They hardly noticed, as most of their eyes were lasered in on the huge cannon sticking out of its chest, aimed right for them.

"What the hell is that?" Natsu asked, as his inner fire was fanned by a trace of fear.

The Fairy Tail wizards felt the tremors created by The Giant's next step. They might not have known exactly what it was, but they knew that unless they didn't truly band together, give absolutely everything, and were graced by a miracle, it would be their end.

* * *

><p><em>And that's where we're leaving off for now! In the next chapter, the sparks are really gonna fly as we take on more than just Phantom Lord mooks! Hope you guys liked it, and I'll see you guys as we get to the first round of S-Class opponents!<em>

_Unfortunately, there aren't any Sidestories to go along with this chapter. We actually won't have another one until the end of this arc, but worry not, as I will be sure to remind you when they come back!_

_(Insert cheeky request for reviews here.)_


	13. Phantom Lord Arc - Part 3

_Blood has been spilled in this intense rivalry, and now it's the beginning of the final encounter! It's Fairy Tail vs. Phantom Lord, no holds barred with everything on the line this time around! So strap yourselves in, and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 13<br>- This River Leads Into The Sea -**

Lucy's head was filled with questions as she gradually regained consciousness. What happened? Where was she? What were those tremors every few seconds?

"How are you feeling?" a despicably polite voice asked behind her. Lucy realized at that second that her wrists had been bound together, so she struggled slightly to rise to her feet without the balancing of her arms. When she reached a vertical base, she stared daggers at the man on the other side of her prison cell. "I do hope you forgive how brusque we had to be in bringing you here, Miss Heartfilia," he continued as he opened the door, letting himself inside.

"What's all this about?" Lucy demanded, recognizing the man as Phantom Lord's Guild Master, Jose. Her mind then promptly remembered some of her guesswork at the drop of her last name. "Why are you attacking Fairy Tail? And why'd you bring me here?"

Jose chuckled. "We're only doing our job as a guild," he answered with a grin. "A few days ago, a man by the name of Jude Heartfilia came to Phantom Lord, asking us to help bring his lovely daughter home. She'd run away, you see, and joined up with a clan of miscreant wizards. I couldn't in good conscience turn him down."

Lucy grimaced at the confirmation. So her father had been behind it all along. "Why does he care now, all of a sudden?" she asked softly, feeling her chest tighten. This whole mess had been because of her. Levy, Jet, and Droy had been hurt, because of her. Her guildmates had gone to confront Phantom Lord, surely resulting in more injured. Because of her.

"You'll have to ask him that yourself when you see him again," Jose shrugged in his cloak. "I didn't bother to ask for any more details than I needed - and all I'd needed was to hear him say he wanted Fairy Tail out of the picture."

"Leave my friends out of this!" she growled. "You've got me already, so you don't have to go after them anymore!"

Jose couldn't keep his facade, cackling like some great joke had been told. "But Miss Heartfilia, this is my favorite part of the deal. Fairy Tail has been a thorn in my side for years now, and I'll finally be able to dig it out once and for all. Care to look outside your window?"

Lucy hated to take the order, but did as she was told. She walked up to her window, and the first thing she noticed was how high up she was over a restless body of water. She found the reason for the waves, as a mechanical leg lifted, and stepped forward with a tremendous splash. Her gaze traveled back up, where she caught sight of a long, black structure pointed straight ahead. Upon closer inspection, she was able to make it out as the biggest cannon she'd ever seen.

Her eyes then directed across the lake, witnessing the semi-familiar color scheme of a large pile of rubble, sitting atop a tall cliff. Her heart sank as she recognized the destination of the walking fortress, exactly in the crosshairs of Phantom Lord's massive weapon.

"Can you see them from here? Your fellow fairies as they prepare themselves for their last stand?" Jose asked mockingly. Lucy swallowed as she indeed began spotting tiny outlines of people gathering before the ruined hall. "They're going to try to rescue you, dear. I suppose you could say it's noble on their part, but I simply can't think to call facing a Jupiter Cannon anything other than sheer stupidity."

"No!" Lucy gripped the bars of her window and cried out to them, as far away as they were. "You guys have to get out of here!"

"There's no need to grow hysterical just yet, Miss Heartfilia," Jose said, smirking. "Something tells me your friends will refuse to be killed so easily. This is why I have my Element Four ready and waiting for them - and you can be sure they won't survive taking us head-on."

Lucy swiveled back to glower at the man's dark glee, but could only muster a sad, bitter expression. "Don't hurt them," she pleaded. She would've continued, but found her words lost when the floor began to slowly vibrate.

Jose's eyes widened in excitement. "It's a little late to beg. The Jupiter Cannon has already begun the charging process." He then looked over his shoulder, and addressed a second individual outside of her cell. "Just a little longer, Gajeel. The Giant will stop soon."

"Good..." a guttural voice groaned off to the side. "Damn moving castle... Salamander better live through that blast and make this worth my while..."

Lucy's dread was almost too much to bear. She fell to her knees as tears fell down her cheeks. It was all her fault that her guild was being threatened with the monstrous cannon, and she was powerless to help. There was nothing she could do. She was without her keys, locked up in a cell, her hands tied together -

For a second, she stared down at her hand, her right hand that proudly displayed the symbol of her new family. That same family that had welcomed her with open arms, that was now looking down the barrel of wholesale destruction. For her. Instead of running away, they were going to stand their ground, come what may, and do everything they could to save her. They'd all promised to remain true to Fairy Tail, and they were following through by staying for her, one of their own.

Fairy Tail continued to believe in her, in themselves, and she smiled as wiped her tears, realizing that she still believed, too.

**- 0 -**

"That's a Jupiter Cannon," Mira scowled as she identified the weapon. "That thing's strong enough to wipe us all out, and take out a section of the city on top of that."

After the initial shock of how devastating its power was, all of the wizards planted their feet. This wasn't just a war between guilds anymore. Phantom Lord was endangering more than just their lives now. Macao's little boy Romeo, Wakaba's wife, the Father and children at Cana's old orphanage - the innocent were being involved, too, and there was no way Fairy Tail was going to be let anyone else be hurt.

Erza was the first to see the magical energy building within the cannon. "It's going to fire! Move back!" she ordered, running up the cliff's edge. Most remained rooted to their spot, but when she repeated herself as the ominous glow inside the weapon became visible to their eyes, they instinctively obeyed. "Adamantine Armor!" she cried, Requipping into her outfit of ultimate defense.

"What're you doing, Erza?!" Natsu asked, even though he knew exactly what she intended.

"I'm going to absorb the blast!" she said, without looking back. "Stay behind me! Once the attack passes, proceed with the plan! Get in there, defeat the Element Four, and bring back Lucy!"

They all knew it was insanity, but no one could find it within them to object her steadfast resolve. She was the strongest of them all, and she was going to ensure the safety of the others, no matter the cost. If she had to become a martyr for their fighting chance, then that was a price she would bitterly accept.

But as she mustered up every ounce of strength she had, she felt another extreme force come up beside her. "Mirajane?!"

"I'm not going to let you get yourself killed!" her rival barked at her with the demonic echoing of her Satan Soul.

"Get away! The others still need you to face Jose! You're the only one who -"

"I can't do it alone!" Mira interrupted, angry at the reality. "You know how exhausting my magic is! With his power, there's no guarantee that I'd be able to last long enough in this form to beat him! I'm going to need your help, and you couldn't give it to me if you died right here!"

Erza considered the proposition. "Do you have any defensive spells?"

"No," Mira shook her head with a slight smirk, "but if I fire back into that thing with my strongest attack, it should dilute their blast enough to keep us alive, and hopefully still leave us with _something_ to take on Jose with."

"Well get ready! Titanium Barrier!" the redhead exclaimed, shutting her great shield pieces together to form a colossal magic circle in front of them.

Mira flapped her wings once, lifting her above Erza's armor extensions as the Jupiter Cannon released the accumulated energy. "Soul Extinction!" she yelled for her most fatal technique, launching a monstrous black beam in return from her widened claws.

The others watched in awe as Mira's counter was lost within the cannon's multicolored blast, but it seemed to have the desire effect of mitigating its capabilities, allowing Erza to suppress the weakened output. Their defiant screams against the cannon's roar told of the strain they felt, the agony they subjected themselves to so no one else would suffer. But, however hard they were pushed, however much their bodies threatened to be overwhelmed, their wills managed to overcome, and successfully withstood the assault until its conclusion.

After the Jupiter beam dissipated, both Erza and Mira reverted to their normal selves as they collapsed from the effort. The clash of powers, and especially the volatile burst at the end, had left behind a large trench that the women had fainted at the bottom of. The group ran down and retrieved them, their faces mixed with relief and worry.

"They're just unconscious! Get them back to the basement!" Cana instructed, leaving the task to members that weren't as key to the operation. "You heard what they said," she addressed the decided group. "She and Mira are out for right now, but we've still got those bastards inside that castle to take care of. The Element Four is ours, and if it comes down to it, hopefully we can buy them enough time to adequately rest up to fight Jose."

"I'm going after Gajeel!" Natsu announced again with nostrils flared as they watched as the two women were gingerly carted off. "I can smell him from here, and he's the one guarding Lucy!"

"Then I'm going with you," Loke declared darkly. Before Natsu could reject his accompaniment, he explained his judgment. "I already told you, my number one priority is getting Lucy out of there. I'm not going in as your back-up, because I trust you can handle Black Steel on your own. If I have to jump in to keep Lucy safe, though, I don't wanna hear a word from you against it."

Natsu frowned at him for a second, but then his expression devolved into a smirk. "Alright, then," he agreed to Loke's terms. He understood what was really on the line, and if that meant that he wasn't going to have a one-on-one rematch with the Iron Dragon Slayer, then he'd give it up if it was best for his friends. "But don't worry. You'll be able to get comfortable next to Lucy as the two of you watch me take that metalhead out."

"If that's what the two of you are gonna be doing, then I'm going in, too!" Elfman cried out, looking at Cana, Gray and Lisanna. "You'll be short someone against the Element Four, and after what they've done to Mira, there's no way you're keeping me out here!"

Lisanna was about to remind him of his powers not being enough to face their S-Class enemies, but she was interrupted as a cloud of shadows escaped from the head of The Giant with a chilling screech. The legion of ghostly apparitions rushed towards them with eery eyes glowing blood-red, their combined mass able to blot out much of the sunlight.

"So you were able to survive the Jupiter Cannon," a malicious voice that could only belong to Jose sounded all around with a chuckle. "Your little idols aren't in any condition to take another blast, so I wonder what will become of you once it recharges? But, I'm not so cruel as to allow you to wallow out your last few minutes waiting out the inevitable. Why don't my Shades entertain you in the meanwhile?"

Fairy Tail responded with a passionate war cry, firing back at the encroaching minions. They were vanquished without much difficulty, but it was made apparent shortly that their true strength was in their numbers. For every one that was defeated, it seemed that three more spawned to take its place, creating the sky above them a nightmare to behold as they swept around with claws bared.

"This is pointless!" Gray yelled out as his ice surged through the waves. "These things are weak, but he'll just keep this up until that cannon's ready to fire again! We can't waste our magic on these things; we gotta put a stop to this before it recharges!"

As if Jose had overheard his concerns, a demoralizing influx of Shades emerged from Phantom Lord's mobile headquarters. The swarm before had been trouble enough to contain, but as they looked around at the other members, it was clear that they were being cast with doubt. Even as some of the veterans commanded them to keep their spirits up, they couldn't help but see a losing battle.

Happy looked to the Card Wizard as they wiped out another grouping of Jose's servants. "Cana, you should stay behind and rally the rest of the members!" he said, dodging a Shade that was promptly burned away by Natsu. Her shocked response was shared with the rest of the team. "They're all losing heart, and they need someone to make sure they don't give up! Everyone in the guild looks up to you, Cana, like a cool older sister. You might not be S-Class, but we all know what you're capable of. You have their respect, and even though we could use your help in there, you're the only one that can be the leader these guys need to keep fighting," the cat explained.

Cana knew the merit of what he was saying, and she had no problems accepting that role. She would've pet him for his foresight if she could've. The reason for her frown came from sending the others to face Phantom Lord's strongest wizards with unfavorable odds. "You guys focus on Lucy and the Element Four," she nodded solemnly. "I'll handle things down here."

The brunette ran off to fortify the circle of Macao, Wakaba, Alzack, Bisca and Laki. Meanwhile, Lisanna spearheaded the charge to the edge of the cliff. In the middle of her bound, she began to glow, and Took Over into a beautiful white hawk, tearing through the angry black waves. "I can get to the Jupiter Cannon the fastest! I'll destroy its power source!" she called as she rapidly ascended.

Nobody fought her decision, instead shouting support as Gray created an icy stairway for him, Elfman and Loke to use to reach The Giant. Meanwhile, Natsu was picked up by Happy, staying just above the other boys as they aimed for the entrance they had blown apart earlier. Once they reached the busted gates, they took a quick glance around inside as they figured out where to go next.

"Lucy and Gajeel are near the top! Come on, Loke!" Natsu said after finding their scents, breaking off from Gray and Elfman with the others in tow.

"Let's split up and make sure no one gets ganged up on," the ice mage said, nodding at the Strauss brother as they began down opposite corridors. Fairy Tail had shown their entire hand, and now it was on them to trump whatever Phantom Lord had themselves.

**- 0 -**

Lisanna soared up to the cannon's opening, the hawk's aerial instincts guiding her through the narrowest angles to slip by the Shades untouched. She bulleted down the barrel, the light at the end becoming a large, circular room with a huge lacrima mounted in the center. She changed back into her normal form, already aware of the lone figure standing protectively by the pulsating orb.

"So _you're_ the one they sent to shut down the Jupiter Cannon?" the man with a katana strapped to his belt asked her, raising an eyebrow at her renowned white hair. "You're not exactly the opponent I was hoping for, but if you're part of the infamous Strauss family, you might still present a challenge."

Lisanna smirked back at him. "Actually, I was hoping _you'd_ be the Element up here, Totomaru, 'The Flurry of Dancing Flames'," she recited.

"Oh really?" Totomaru lifted his chin. "And what makes you so confident about your chances against me?" He summoned a bright fireball in his right hand, throwing it in her direction. She hopped out of the way, causing it to splatter into embers in the spot she had just been standing in.

"Cat Soul!" Lisanna shouted, Taking Over into her preferred battle form. With a hiss, she pounced at Totomaru, evading a barrage of fireballs as she attempted to claw at him. However, as she neared his vicinity, she felt a rapid spike in the room's temperature, emanating from the S-Class mage. A violent explosion rocked before her, which she just managed to dart away from at the last second.

"Your reflexes are very impressive to have dodged my Combustion spell," Totomaru acknowledged. Only the tip of her blue tail had been scorched by the burst. "I don't believe we'll make much progress if we keep this up. You'll avoid my long-range attacks, but you won't be able to come near me, either. All the while, the cannon will just keep charging until it's ready to fire again. Is this really the fight you wanted?"

"I didn't wanna fight anyone at all, but you guys came after us first. If your guild insists on trying to destroy Fairy Tail and a part of our city, too," Lisanna glowered, her feline eyes flickering to the spherical crystal, "you won't keep me from breaking that lacrima. Fair warning, I'm one of the last people a Fire Wizard like you would wanna deal with."

"I've heard about your little thing with that Salamander kid. You're pretty and all, but you're not too hot to handle, if that's what you're getting at," Totomaru grinned smugly as he was enveloped by a burning aura. "Do you know why they call me 'The Flurry of Dancing Flames'?" he asked, grabbing his holstered weapon. "I'll show you."

He closed the distance between them almost immediately with blade unsheathed. His aura of fire propelled his movements exponentially, his enhanced agility now on par with Lisanna's swiftness as he slashed away relentlessly. She dipped and whirled to dodge his assault, but she could do nothing about the proximity of his flames singing her fur and skin. If she didn't do something to cut out his sword from his arsenal, she would have to use her biggest advantage much earlier than she truly needed to.

Deciding on a different drastic measure, she waited for three more swipes before finding the opening she'd been looking for. He had expertly ensured to not allow any counter blows, but Totomaru hadn't been expecting her to take hold of his wrist through the fire. In one blazing-fast motion, she jumped, and turned in the air to lock her legs around his arm. Her momentum drove them to the ground, the impact jolting straight through to his shoulder.

He cried in pain as he released his katana. The weapon clattered on the tile as Lisanna immediately sprang away before he could force her off with another Combustion. "Well?" she asked, trying to mask her pain from the slight burns she received with a challenging tone. "Think you can keep going with your arm sprained like that?"

"You're asking _me_ to give in?" Totomaru growled, clutching at his numb appendage as he rose. "Don't get cute just because I can't use my sword anymore. I still have plenty of techniques to beat you with!" It clearly hurt to put his hands together, but he did so to produce an oddly-colored flame between them. "Orange Fire!"

The attack proved effortless to dodge, but Lisanna found that the smell the fireball left behind was beyond putrid. She clamped her paw over her runny nose as her eyes watered, but the cat's wondrous sense of smell proved to be a great detriment at the moment. "That's disgusting!" she choked after inhaling a lungful of the noxious fumes.

Totomaru saw his window. "Blue Fire!" he shouted, the azure flames he commanded finding their mark. They hit the vulnerable Lisanna in the stomach, but instead of being scalded, she felt as if she'd been struck by a blizzard. Her spring-loaded muscles stiffened as the subzero cold swept through her frame, her chilled bones wracked with pain when she tried to evade his follow-up. "Purple Flare!"

The Take Over Wizard recognized that type of magic, a solid fire utilized by her old friend Macao. Despite knowing its effects and needing to get away, her movements were hampered by all the previous damage she'd taken, and her left leg was hammered by the attack. She yelled out as she fell to the floor, holding her bruised thigh.

"Looks like you were wrong. You weren't prepared at all to deal with my variety of multicolored flames," Totomaru sneered. "So have you had enough yet? What happens to your guild down below us isn't up to me, but I'd rather not kill you if I can help it."

"Never!" Lisanna roared, willing herself to her feet. "I won't surrender, not with everyone counting on me to destroy that cannon's lacrima!"

"Then you leave me no choice! You'll be the first fairy to fall!" Totomaru shouted. "Green Fire!"

Her injuries prevented her from moving away, so she braced herself for the emerald blaze to crash into her. However, she didn't feel any burning sensation at all; instead, the flames remained cackling on her body, and somehow her mind went completely blurry. She tried taking a cautious step with her right leg, but instead her wounded left responded. She buckled at the spark of pain, and found herself on the ground, without any means of getting her inferno-wrapped limbs to act accordingly. "What'd you do to me?" she managed to ask, trying to keep from panicking.

"That's the power of my Green Fire," Totomaru began with a smirk. "It disorients you so you can't properly move your own body. It's pretty scary to not have any real control over yourself, isn't it? That despair of everything spiraling away must be unbearable, when all you can do now is watch as I finish you off with my ultimate spell! Rainbow Fire!"

With his arms spread out, he invoked a circle of floating fireballs before him. Their hues ranged all over the spectrum - orange, blue, purple, green, joined by red, yellow, pink, white, and black. Totomaru melded them into one colossal orb over his head, its combined colors shimmering and changing by the second. As he reared back to launch it at her prone figure, Lisanna knew in her distress that now was the time to unleash the special Animal Soul she'd been reserving.

The Fire Wizard felt a small pang of guilt as he released his attack. He was far removed from the hatred Master Jose had for Fairy Tail, but as a member of Phantom Lord and its strongest team, he was obligated to go along with his plan. But, in a sudden twist, just as he'd been sure the girl would be eliminated, his Rainbow Fire was somehow redirected. Totomaru watched in shock as it seemingly bounced off Lisanna, obscured by its light, and collided with the cannon's core. It shattered into tiny fragments, the lair rumbling heavily from the lost collection of magic.

"No way..." he breathed, then looked over at the white-haired girl, whose appearance had changed drastically.

Lisanna's new Partial Take Over had left her in white haori with crimson trim that came off her shoulders, tucked into a short red skirt with a longer flowing cape at the back, and white stockings. She retained the same triangular ears and whiskers, but her blue eyes had become gold, and the fur on her pawed hands and feet was now a cream color. The most distinct feature of her spell, however, was the set of nine billowing fox tails that rose up behind her.

"Surprised?" she asked, smirking at his astounded expression. "My Kitsune Soul comes with a few special abilities, including fire manipulation. I knew you wouldn't let me get near the Jupiter Cannon's lacrima, so I got you to use an attack strong enough to destroy it _for_ me. So thanks for the helping hand, and now that that's taken care of and my friends down there are safe, I can focus on defeating you!"

"You played me!" Totomaru raged at falling for her gambit, but he then noticed another person with his peripheral vision. He turned, leading him to pivot in a full circle as he found himself surrounded by five different versions of his opponent.

One by one, Lisanna rushed at him in her assortment of Partial Take Overs. First up was her speedy Squirrel Soul, which Totomaru narrowly dodged an uppercut from. He next ducked under a roundhouse kick from the pantyhosed leg of her Rabbit Soul, a cute number clad in a pink bunny girl outfit. After rolling away from a swipe by the familiar Cat Soul, he set his left arm ablaze, and burned through the oncoming image of her Grizzly Soul.

"These are illusions!" he realized her latest trickery as her power form dissipated. "Only the Kitsune must be real!" The Flurry charged at the mythical fox model of Lisanna, who only smiled at him with glowing eyes as his swing connected - or so he would've liked to believe.

"Good guess, but who said I couldn't make a copy of that form, too?" her voice asked from behind. He turned around, only to get caught by a very real punch to the gut. Lisanna followed up on the winded Totomaru with a series of precise blows to his exposed weak points, culminating in a high kick to the jaw that launched him several feet into the air. She jumped up with him, the flames of their battle joining her in mid-air, coating her to boost her finishing move. She rotated for even more momentum, then knocked him back to the ground, striking with the force of all nine tails.

The crash of his body caused deep fissures across the floor. Lisanna landed beside him, picking up his low groans as Totomaru's consciousness faded. She released her Kitsune Soul, panting in physical and magical exhaustion. It had been an incredibly trying encounter against the S-Class mage, but she'd managed to pull through, disable the Jupiter Cannon, and come out the winner. She'd derived the strength she needed from all of her friends fighting their hearts out, on the ground and elsewhere in The Giant, for Lucy and their guild, and prayed that they'd emerge just as victorious as she had.

**- 0 -**

Elfman blindly followed the winding pathways, eager for the second a Phantom Lord mage would try to ambush him. He wanted to help take some of the heat off Natsu and Loke as they tried to rescue the captive Lucy, of course. It went without saying that he wanted to make the bastards pay for what they did to Shadow Gear and the Master. But it was seeing his beloved older sister injured after courageously putting her life on the line defending them, that fueled his desire to crack their skulls.

Taking another turn, an unclean wave of chills suddenly caused him to falter. The invading feeling stemmed from his foot after a step, and he looked around the wide hallway for any signs of life. "Come out and fight me like a real man!" he demanded, but the only response was his own echo. He knew he shouldn't disregard the sensation, but there didn't seem to be anything else for him to do but keep running.

The next right he made lead him to a dead end. Growling at his luck, he decided to break down the wall and at least see how Cana and the others were faring against Jose's Shades. He was stopped, however, by a snide, accented voice ringing throughout the empty hallway. "Ah, you have arrived," a man in a brown-orange suit said as he slithered up from the ground a few yards away from him. "_Salut_, Elfman Strauss. _Pardonnez-moi _for the delay, I had to ensure everything was _parfait_ before presenting myself."

"And just who the hell are you? If you're not one of the Element Four, then you better get out of my way! I'm not looking to waste my time with runts like you!" Elfman spat harshly.

The monocled man gave a faux gasp as he placed his hand over his heart. "_Non, non, non!_ How your words strike me so!" His face then spread into a creepy grin, chuckling at his joke. "I am Sol, Monsieur Sol. _En effet_, I am part of the Element Four, the _homme_ known as 'The Wasteland of Desolation'."

Elfman grinned at his ego. "That fits you perfectly, because I'm about to waste you right here!" he charged at Sol as his arm began to glow. "Savage Arm - Gorian!" His right appendage bulged with the green-furred muscles of a Forest Vulcan, reared back and forming a giant fist. However, his opponent bent his torso to dodge, stretching out like clay to then wrap himself around his arm.

"You expect to defeat an S-Class Wizard with such a basic technique?" Sol taunted, unnaturally wagging his neck.

"Get off!" Elfman pulled at the man's rubbery composition, but he couldn't manage to budge his hold in the slightest. He thought back to his last battle and how he'd used his fire-based Partial Salamandra Soul to escape from another binding mage, but before he could activate the spell, Sol quickly slithered away. He snapped back into proper shape in midair, and was able to connect with a spinning kick to the face to the unprepared man.

"Are you wondering how I knew your next move before you made it?" Sol asked as Elfman held his jaw. "It is because there is _rien_ in your head that you can use to surprise me. Those chills you felt earlier? That was you triggering my Conscient spell, which allowed me to view all of your _memoirs importants_."

The Take Over Wizard snarled. Sol was deceptively stronger than this stringy appearance suggested, but he refused to give him a mental edge over him. "You wanna get in my head? You might learn something about being a real man!" He swung for the monocled man again, but ended up hitting the floor instead, kicking up pieces of the stone finish.

"Eboulement!" Sol cried out. The rocks flew up higher, following the motion of his arm, then rained down on Elfman at his directing. He snickered again as he watched the burly individual have to dig himself out from under the pile, looking worse for wear. "Your _facade_ of being a 'real man' is so amusing, especially since it's so far from being _vrai. _Roche Concerto!"

The ground beneath Elfman's feet suddenly burst, sending him airborne as a wave of boulders struck him as well. He landed on top of the punishing rubble, but was undeterred as he slowly climbed back up. "Don't act like you know," he barked, pushing off his knee with his normal arm, "what kind of man I am!"

As a response, Sol wriggled his finger, and conjured a statue of a scowling Natsu out of the earth. "I know exactly the kind of man you are," the replica said darkly, in the Dragon Slayer's exact voice. "The kind that nearly kills his own friend."

Before Elfman could stammer out a response as vivid flashes of the event raced through his mind, a new statue sprouted next to the first. "Natsu almost died protecting me from you," his younger sister said, sounding uncharacteristically depressed. "What would've happened if he hadn't been there?"

His words caught in his throat. He had gone over the possibility on many occasions, and a third figure completed the insinuation of his worst fear. "You could've killed Lisanna," the likeness of Mira this time, accused coldly. "If I'd listened to you and told Natsu to stay home, Lisanna would be dead right now, and it'd be all your fault!"

"That's not true!" Elfman yelled frantically, holding his head with eyes closed as he tried to shut out the haunting scenario. "That wouldn't happen!"

Unbeknownst to him, Sol dissolved his statues to a fine sand, swirling the grains into a tightly-compacted sphere. "Sable Missile!" he said, firing the dense projectile straight into his foe's broad chest. "You honestly believed you would be a proper _adversaire_ for me, when you are so pathetic?" he belittled as Elfman only stirred on the ground. "You should've heeded your _soeur ainee _and remained outside! A man who can't even use his full powers is hardly a man at all, and there was only one outcome for you in Le Giant! Come, I will take you to where your nightmares have no end! Merci la Vie!"

Never making it past his hands and knees, Elfman began to feel his skin being encased in stone. He howled as he struggle to free himself, but the land only encroached higher and higher, until he'd been swallowed up to his neck. His defiant cries devolved into soft whimpering as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, overcome by the spell that earned Sol his nickname, left to relive the dread of the night they'd fought against The Beast.

_Elfman was paralyzed when he discerned the bruised Mira, favoring her arm as she tried crawling away. The monster that they'd been hired to defeat stalked her slowly, savoring its superiority over the white-haired woman. Immediately, he knew that at this point, his attempt to Take Over The Beast had failed. That was him cornering his older sister._

_Seconds later, Lisanna flew in from overhead in her dove form. After reporting to Mira that she'd succeeded in evacuating the nearby town, she was told of what their brother had done when the tide had turned for the worst. Elfman saw a determined look spread across her face as she stood up to The Beast. He listened as she pleaded with him to snap out of the trance, that they loved him and wanted to go home together. He watched their target raise its claw above its head in response._

_Natsu! Where was Natsu?! This was supposed to be where he saved her! Where he pushed her out of the way and took the blow himself!_

_Elfman dropped to his knees, screaming at the top of his lungs with Mira as Lisanna soared through the air. He felt sick as he heard the impact of The Beast striking her, weak at the subsequent thud of her landing. He would've shut his eyes as Mira hurried despite her injuries to their little sister's side, but he found he couldn't. There was no turning away from the scene in this dream._

_Mira held on to her broken body, sobbing, begging her to hold on. Elfman caught Lisanna's soft last words as if he'd been right next to her, optimistic as always. He heard as she exhaled for the final time, sending him to his forearms. He felt his heart tear as hers stopped._

_In the new void in his chest, malevolence took root. He clenched his fists through the dirt, sharp claws piercing his palms. He bellowed out as his massive frame rose to its taloned feet, fangs bared to rip apart the one responsible._

_He used his powerful legs to jump at The Beast, covering all that ground to topple it over, and stabbed through the thick hide of its left pectoral._

"How is this happening?!" Sol cried out as the shell of earth around his victim began to crack, revealing an intense light. "You shouldn't be able to resist like this!"

Elfman burst free of his stone casing, scattering the pieces about as he was now engulfed in a golden glow, from his toes to the tips of his white hair. He turned around with a seething glare in his eyes, before uttering in a low tone, "Beast Soul."

The Wasteland's eyes widened as Elfman grew nearly triple in size. His monocle slipped from his hold, unable to believe what the fool was doing. He was activating a Full-Body Take Over? There was no way he could control himself, especially not in that destructive form. He was going to have to finish this off quickly now before it became too much of a disruption to Master Jose's plan. "Platre Sonata!"

The great fist of earth he created rocketed towards the abomination, but it stopped it dead in its flight with both hands. The pressure it was gripped with caused it to break apart as easily as a dried clump of mud. Sol began to backpedal as The Beast's predatory eyes leered at him ravenously, saliva dripping from between the razors in its mouth.

"Monsieur Elfman!" he pleaded in a wavering voice. "Restrain yourself! There is no need for such extremities!"

The Beast roared, and swiped at the man in the suit. The attack was just a second too late, as Sol submerged himself into the ground. It expressed its annoyance by putting its fist through the closest wall, leaving itself open to a countermeasure.

"Roche Tombe!" The earth mage sprang up from behind The Beast, summoning a craggy mountain to bury it in. He breathed a sigh of relief when the rumbling within the pile stopped a moment later, figuring that the ample oxygen it needed had run out. However, with one intense outburst, The Beast smashed out of it, descending onto a stricken Sol to hammer him repeatedly with both fists.

His Corps D'Argil, the spell that altered his body's constitution, normally absorbed attacks without much damage taken. However, even his prominent malleability was unable to withstand the tremendous might of The Beast. As he lay sprawled out, half of his mind already slipped into black, Sol understood he'd been crushed - quite literally - by the lesser wizard.

"Please..." he croaked faintly. "You can't do this... How will you live with yourself if you kill me now...? Take control of that _monstre_ and stop before it's too late..."

The hallway shook with the guttural sound The Beast emitted, as if it was laughing. "You don't see it, do you?" it asked in a demonic voice. "I _am_ in control."

Sol's swollen eyes enlarged as much as they were allowed. "_Merde_..."

"I should thank you," Elfman continued as his Take Over's features relaxed, giving him a more human presence. "A real man can only let go of the past until he's torn it apart with his own hands, and made sure it won't ever keep up with him anymore. That's exactly what your little vision taught me, and now that I've managed to tame myself, I've unlocked the full powers of Savage Soul."

He picked up the barely-conscious man by the scruff of his distinct collar, lifting him to level with his eyes. He stared at him like a prize, before he pummeled Sol into the ground once more. Feeling unsatisfied that the damaged doled out had yet to be proportionate, he reached into the crater, grabbed the out-cold body of his enemy, and flung him into the far wall. Sol broke through it, leaving behind a trail of dust as he sailed towards the mainland, the battlefield where the rest of Fairy Tail was fighting for their lives.

As he watched his guildmates continue to ward off the Shades, the thought occurred to him. If the Jupiter Cannon was going to fire again, surely it would've done so by now. The fact that his friends hadn't been blasted to oblivion had to mean only one thing: his little sister had succeeded in going through whatever defense had been set up, and busted its energy source.

Elfman allowed himself to swell with pride for Lisanna, his indomitable comrades, and himself. She had upheld her end of things, they were managing theirs, and he had finally proved himself capable of his magic, worthy of his family. Now, all that was left was for the others to deliver on their word, and make it all back to their home to rebuild.

**- 0 -**

As Gray scoured his side of The Giant, he felt the quakes of combat. Lisanna had to have faced off against one of the Elements when she ventured down the cannon's barrel, and if the hum from the charging sequence stopping was any indication, she must've won against the person stationed there. Elfman probably ran into another of Phantom Lord's strongest, and there was little doubt that the trio of Natsu, Happy and Loke had attracted attention as well. He was starting to get anxious that no one had been sent after him yet.

He entered into a cramped storage attic, and almost went right back out before he noticed the sunroof over his head. As he looked up through the water-dotted glass at the cloudy sky, he decided that if none of the Element Four were going to take the bait, then he'd have to be the one to bite. With the intent of shooting straight for the head, he pushed the panels open, and pulled himself up to the top of a long, rectangular building.

The slight drizzle caught his attention first, then the clear heavens beyond his immediate area. He wondered how the phenomena was caused, before spotting a lady in blue. She stood at the edge of the building with a pink parasol propped up, staring out at the affair between Fairy Tail and the Shades.

"Hey!" he called out, forcing the young woman to face him. With a melancholic expression, she walked towards him as he did the same, the two getting a better view of each other. She was undoubtedly attractive, and would surely be even more so under lighter circumstances. However, after having discussed the potential match-ups with the others before The Giant appeared, he recognized who she was. "You're 'The Rainfall', aren't you? Juvia of the Element Four."

The girl, whose eyes had sparked to life at the sight of the handsome shirtless boy, kept her blush hidden by the shadow of her umbrella. "Yes, I am. And you, you've come to fight me?" she asked softly, her gaze lingering around his exposed guild mark.

Gray's eyes narrowed. "Drop the act. I'm not gonna get suckered by you playing innocent, got it? Even though you're a girl, you're still just as much a part of this as any other Phantom Lord punk."

Juvia's eyes dropped. "I understand. We're supposed to be enemies, aren't we? Master Jose wanted me to stop any intruders, but all I'd hoped for was to avoid any more conflict. However, if what you want is to -"

She suddenly let out a yelp, then clamped her mouth shut as she turned away in embarrassment. Gray looked at her quizzically, wondering what incited that reaction out of her, just before realizing he'd been stripping off his jeans. "Ah! Dammit!" he cried, trying to pull them back up from his ankles.

"Oh, my..." His boldness was too much, too fast for Juvia's delicate sensibilities. "Water Lock!" she shouted as a reflex, capturing him in the same large bubble she'd used on the Heartfilia heiress. His gargled groans helped slow the pounding in her chest, bringing about a guilt as she saw his frantic visage. Despite being what the Master ordered of her, she hated to have to hurt anyone. She considered releasing her spell, but that decision was made for her.

The sphere froze completely, before breaking apart to send shards of ice in all directions. Juvia witnessed the fragments passing by her, nearly swooning at the picturesque vision. The pieces glistening from the light radiating off the boy, his steely determination as much on display as his sculpted frame. He and his magic were beautiful.

"That's just something that happens. Sorry," he apologized disdainfully as he buckled his soaked pants, not wanting her to take that as some obscene gesture. "But, at least now I know you're actually serious about all this. Trying to drown someone like that? That's brutal."

"I'm sorry," Juvia responded meekly, hurt by the accusation. "I didn't mean to do that, either. It's just... It's because I am clumsy."

For a second, Gray lost his edge. His enemy couldn't really be this cute?

Then, he recalled that they were on opposite sides of a war, and mentally slapped himself for allowing himself to believe her pretense. "You're not gonna fool me! Ice-Make Arrows!" he retaliated, unleashing the pointed bolts at Juvia. She snapped from her sheepish state, and just managed to twirl away from the barrage, dropping her parasol in the process.

"There's no alternative for us, is there?" she asked, giving him one last opportunity to save himself. When he refused to take it, she raised her hand at him. "Water Pulse!"

Juvia cast a series of rapid, rippling bursts at Gray, striking him in the chest. He rolled backwards from the impact, holding his wound with one arm as his second hand was placed on the wet ground. "Ice-Make Catapult!" He launched himself up at the girl with a jolting platform, and just as he anticipated, she went for the 'advantage' he'd set up for her.

"Water Slicer!" she cried, firing off crescents at the boy who had nowhere to to dodge to in the air.

"Ice-Make Shield!" Gray summoned his trusted defense, intending to absorb her attack and smash into her with the velocity of his descent. However, her technique shredded through his armament, leaving him with shallow gashes on his arms, and a useless chunk of ice left. Tossing it aside, he instead turned his fall into a diving kick. Their eyes met just before he hit her, and she caught how his widened as his foot went right through her midsection with a splash.

"My Water Body makes me invulnerable to physical attacks," Juvia explained as Gray regrouped a few feet away. "You'll have to use your magic to defeat me."

"And why are you telling me that?" he scowled. What was her strategy for pinpointing that out to him?

Juvia looked off the side of the building again, the struggle continuing to rage on at the Fairy Tail ruins. "Your entire guild must all be so close if they'd risk so much for one another," she observed.

Gray picked up on her longing tone. "We might be quick to fight one another over pretty stupid things, but we'll fight _for_ each other even faster." He then inclined his head, his glare becoming even darker. "Attacking Levy, Droy and Jet was despicable, and for that, I'll take on every wizard in Phantom Lord. But then you went ahead and kidnapped Lucy on top of that. If she didn't already have two other guys going up for her, you can be sure I'd be doing that myself. I owe her for the way she helped me out before, so I'll do everything I can to get her back safely."

The guilt that Juvia had been feeling for the duration of the encounter was washed away with his last words. He wanted to protect Lucy? Was that his true goal all along, and she'd simply been serving as an obstruction to that end? And the other boys he mentioned, were the three of them in competition for her affection? The thoughts of him gallivanting to the blonde's rescue after the others had fallen stirred the frustration of heartbreak after heartbreak. "Tell me. Lucy Heartfilia... do you care for her?"

"Well yeah," he replied smartly. "She's one of us. It doesn't matter how new to the guild she is, she's a part of Fairy Tail, and that makes her a part of me, just as much as any of my old friends."

A part of him. Lucy was a part of him. Just when she believed to have found a handsome boy who so complemented her, he had to be in love with someone else. It wasn't fair. From the sun's rays to the embrace of others, Juvia had never been able to bask in any sort of warmth. It was cruel. It was maddening.

Gray felt the rain begin to come down harder as the girl began to tremble. She seemed distracted as she stared at the ground, fists clenched. He thought about taking the opportunity to strike, but couldn't find it in him to hit her when she was vulnerable. The hesitation was costly, as he was blasted by a jet of boiling-hot water from under his feet.

"Don't you flaunt your bonds at me!" she exclaimed as he reeled from the attack. "Geyser!" she repeated the move, amplifying the erupting springs to a scalding temperature thanks to her emotions, but this time Gray evaded. She didn't let up, making it difficult for him to counter as he focused on nimbly dodging around the gushing towers. Knowing the most he could do was cut off her assault, he attempted to get in close. A sharp change in direction, however, lead him to slip on the slick floor, and ended up sliding right into Juvia's legs.

His momentum was slowed by splashing through her ankles. Helpless in the position, he closed his eyes in anticipation for the upcoming blow. When it never came, he cracked open an eye. He saw Juvia staring down at him with a shocked blush, and realized he was under her skirt. Gray understood how inappropriate it'd be for his gaze to wander into the cove of her dress, but the better of his reflexes were drawn to the uncharted waters of her ocean-blue panties.

"Don't look!" she screamed when his eyes twitched south of hers. Gray rolled away with every intention of apologizing, but he didn't even make it back to his feet before she furiously rushed at him in punishment. "Sierra!"

Her body collided into him with astounding pressure for such a short distance, lifting him off his feet. The ice mage felt as if he was being cooked alive as he was carried by the whirling liquid, the seemingly-neverending trail of water searing his skin. Fighting not just the pain but the weight of the current, he managed to bring his hands together to cast a ward. "Ice-Make Rampart!" he choked against the torrent.

He dropped to the floor with the wall of ice in front of him, gasping for breath as he rose, the cold rain soothed his burning body. Juvia diverted around his defenses, reforming behind him. Her hand began to glow in a blue sphere as she took aim. "Water Celebration!" The force of her boiling stream threw him back, to crash into his own protective creation.

Gray pitifully slumped against his Rampart when she ceased fire. Juvia, 'The Rainfall', was the opponent he thought he'd have the easiest time against. He figured his ice would be most effective against her Water Magic. But he'd been off his game the whole time. She was a legitimate S-Class Wizard, and a pretty one to boot, but that wasn't why he'd been getting throttled. It was because there was no real malevolence in the girl.

She'd told him at the very start she wanted no part in terrorizing his guild, but the revenge clawing inside him had refused to accept that. _He'd_ been the aggressor, the instigator, while she'd mostly been defending herself (from one type of advance or another). Gray had been so caught up with wanting to dirty his hands, that he failed to see the best way to deal with a reluctant enemy. "So, you really don't wanna fight?" he asked, using the wall to help him to his feet.

"I don't," Juvia answered modestly, dropping her battle stance. "I can't agree with how Master Jose has handled our mission. We completed the first part of our primary objective, which was to secure Lucy Heartfilia. I will not condone anything beyond that."

"Then help me stop him!" Gray asked. "You know this is wrong, so if you can convince him to end all this, then please help us! You're one of his strongest wizards, he might just listen to you!"

"I don't believe he would," Juvia said, turning away in shame. "My whole life, I've never felt like I've belonged anywhere. People have always kept me at arm's length, the girl always followed by gloomy rain. No one ever wanted anything to do with me - until Master Jose heard of my powers. He took me in and brought me to Phantom Lord, and initially, I was excited to finally be a part of something bigger than myself. But that didn't last very long.

"The novelty of being one of the few women in the guild soon wore off when my guildmates realized that even with my magic, I couldn't control this rain. They began treating me with the same indifference I'd hoped would be behind me. Then, when I was asked to be a member in the Element Four, I understood Master Jose hadn't accepted me for any altruistic reasons; he'd simply wanted me to round out a gimmick team to compete with Fairy Tail's popularity.

"Still, I was given the opportunity to help those who could look past my power incontinence, so I've been a proud Phantom Lord wizard since then - until this war began. It has been difficult for me to be involved, especially when I saw the strength of the relationships within your guild," she explained sorrowfully. She looked back at the boy to see how he would respond to her long-winded story, but didn't expect him to be holding his hand out to her.

"You said people have kept you at arm's length?" Gray asked seriously. "Well, I'm reaching out to you. If there's anything you can do for us, I know everyone at my guild would appreciate your help. Will you, please?"

Juvia couldn't remember the last time the clouds over her head had parted. The last time she'd felt the invigoration of the sun on her skin. But as she moved her hand into his, the rain finally stopped in a timeless moment. She'd felt reborn as his cold hand gently, warmly squeezed hers. "What's your name?" she asked. She needed to know what to call her handsome prince.

"I'm Gray," he answered with a grin. Juvia smiled again at the irony as they took off, putting their agreement in action, for there was nothing gray about her skies anymore.

**- 0 -**

Porlyusica muttered to herself as she swept the broken glass into a neat pile, the remains of the beaker she'd thrown at Alzack and Bisca. "Those blasted kids. Now I'm going to have to go into town and buy a new one."

"I should be able to fix that for you," a weak voice called out from the other end of the room. "I've gotten pretty good at Restoration Magic over the years, what with always having to undo the damage those blasted kids cause in my guild hall."

She whisked her head around, and was momentarily at a loss for words as she witnessed Makarov trying to sit up in bed. "But, how...?" she asked. It hadn't been more than a few minutes since she'd last looked over at him. He'd still been comatose and green from the effects of the Drain spell, but now his pigmentation was quickly reverting to normal as he reclined against the headboard.

"Life is full of mystery," he shrugged, his throat still croaky, "but there's no real wonder here. Someone was simply kind enough to collect my powers and return them to me."

At his gesturing, Porlyusica stared out of the bedside window, finding the person responsible. He was sitting cross-legged on the curved tree next to her house, polishing an apple with a dark cloth that was usually kept around the bottom of his face.

She glowered at Makarov, her way of signaling to stay put, and exited her home. "Yes, please help yourself to all of the fruit you desire, _Prince_," she said sardonically as she approached him, not wanting to be overheard.

"I appreciate your generosity," he deadpanned, retying his bandana over his mouth and nose. "How is Master Makarov now?"

"It was close for a second there, but he'll make a full recovery, thanks to you," Porlysica admitted without much edge in her tone. She picked it right back up again, however, when she spoke next. "Of course, I'm sure that pigheaded fool is just going to run into the fight again. He'll only get himself killed in his condition."

"If that's what it takes," Makarov said, leaning against the open doorway, "to make sure Jose doesn't hurt my children anymore."

"I told you to stay in bed!"

"You didn't say anything, you just gave me a look!"

"And you know that look means 'stay in bed'!"

"You can feel it, can't you?" the young man interjected, somehow having taken a bite from the apple with his mask on. "Phantom Lord is about to arrive in Magnolia. After this battle, only one guild can remain."

Makarov hummed as he nodded. "Then we'd best be on our way. I have full faith that Erza and the others can hold their own while we arrive, but they still have need of us, Mystogan."

"And do you really think you're fit for combat?" Porlyusica pressed. "You were just on the brink of death. What good do you think you can accomplish in your state? This boy here would stand a better chance against Jose than you."

"Be that as it may, I want to be the one to make him kneel," Makarov said darkly. He and his old friend glared at each other, until the pink-haired woman sighed in acceptance. He had always been the stubborn one, and she hoped it wouldn't be the end of him on this day.

"I'll go on ahead," Mystogan said as his body began to fade. "Don't rush yourself, Master. I'll try to save Jose for you, but you know I can't guarantee that when the others are just as resolved to stopping him. There might not be anything left of him by the time you get there."

Mararov chuckled as he began walking. "Wouldn't that be bittersweet?" He stopped at Porlyusica, giving her a nod. "Thank you for your help. How many lives do I owe you by now?"

"You can repay me by never coming back here again," she frowned with crossed arms. "I swear, if I have to nurse you one more time..."

Fairy Tail's Master beamed at her joke, and Porlyusica couldn't help the tugging at her lips, either. She didn't want to see him anytime soon, but never seeing him again, that would be a very bleak result for a fight he'd been thrust into. Of course, with his legendary spirit and its embodiment in his kids, she didn't know why she was even worried about him in the first place.

* * *

><p><em>Man, this one felt awesome. I really want to consider this my best work yet. <em>

_Lisanna, being my muse for this story, needed to have an amazing fight. For the longest time, getting to write this particular clash was my biggest motivation. I absolutely had to use the miko-theme Kitsune Soul I designed for her, and the finished product (especially the Green Fire and illusion rush with the rest of her Take Overs) went beyond my hopes for this. If you wanna know what I consider my most original moment for AI, Lisanna vs. Totomaru has to be it._

_Elfman's fight, I didn't want to be a total rehash of what we got, so I flipped the script by using the actual script (does that make sense?). In my continuity, Natsu kept Lisanna from getting "killed", so I went with canon's actual version to really pile on poor Elfman. I tried to keep the fantasy part vague, but clear as to what was happening, so hopefully no one got lost there. Also, I found French to be a very complex language, so I'm pretty relieved not to be using Sol anymore._

_I love Juvia, and I was very happy to finally be able to introduce her. That said, this fight gave me some serious fits. I knew what I wanted to accomplish - Gray getting Juvia to turn on her guild - but I didn't know how to go about it before stumbling into the same epiphany Gray had: objectively, he'd been in the wrong, and needed a new strategy. I thought it was pretty effective, if I do say so myself. Shout-outs here for Juvia's attacks include Pokémon and Sekirei._

_Super proud of what I accomplished here with every fight scene. It definitely wasn't easy at points, but it makes it all the more satisfying when things turn out better than you imagined. I really hope you guys liked it just as much as I did, and I'm gonna make sure I do my best to top it at the next chapter._

_Thanks again for reading, and if you wanna drop a review, I'd love to hear what you guys have to say!_


	14. Phantom Lord Arc - Part 4

_Part Four, the finale of the Phantom Lord arc! If you liked the first round of battles against these guys, I can only hope that you find these to surpass them! Thanks, and read on!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 14<br>- Supporting Me -**

"Don't back down!" Cana urged her guildmates as she threw her razor-sharp cards, shredding the Shades. She knew she was leading a battle whose outcome was out of their hands, but it was all they could do to defend themselves and their home. "The person next to you has your back, so you've gotta have theirs!"

"Lisanna must've been able to take out that Jupiter Cannon!" Macao pointed out as he tore their ghostly enemies with his Purple Flare. "It's been idle for too long now, so either Jose was bluffing when he said he'd fire again, or she kicked the crap out of somebody and made it inoperable!"

"Of course she did!" Wakaba said with a grin, the smoke billowing from his pipe punching through the onslaught. "Now all we gotta do is hold these damn creatures and wear Jose down for the others!"

"Jose can keep this up all day!" Alzack said, having taken Cana's encouragement literally as he and Bisca emptied clip after clip with their backs pressed against one another. "I really don't think this is making much of a dent in his magical energy!"

"Buck up!" his green-haired companion nudged him playfully as she Requipped a fully-loaded shotgun in her hands. "He might be a monster, but he's still human, so he's gotta have a limit! If we can even the playing field just a little for Erza and Mira, then we can't stop shooting!"

"Do you really think they'll recuperate enough to be able to face him?" Laki wondered, after shouting a nonsensical incantation to plow through the Shades with her Wood-Make Magic. "They didn't look to be in any fighting shape after that cannon blast!"

"Damn right they will!" Cana insisted, burning an entire platoon of the apparitions with her blazing-white Overheat beam. "You wanna talk about monsters? I had to take on those two in the S-Class trials, and they refused to stay down no matter what was thrown their way! If there's anyone who can take on a Jupiter Cannon, live, and _still_ go after a Wizard Saint, you better believe it's Erza and Mira!"

She then felt an inspiring wave of power surge through her, and presumably all the others as well. They might not have been familiar with the presence, but she'd happened to stand opposite it once at another of her S-Class attempts. It served to give them a second wind, and Cana knew it had galvanized their chances in the war.

"They can't stand right now, so we gotta do it for them! Don't let up until they walk out of that basement, ready to make that bastard pay for what he's done! They need us to give everything we've got left, because we can always count on them to do the same for us! You saw what they did for us just now, but even though they might not be watching right now, they'll wanna hear about how we fought for _them_, about how we pushed Jose back for _them_! So stand up, and show him what it means to be a Fairy Tail wizard!"

Every member on the ground raised their fists with Cana's, letting loose a mighty roar to match the endless barrage of phantasms. Even if the vile man wasn't weakened by their efforts, the same would apply to the light in their hearts. They were Fairy Tail to the end - Jose's end.

**- 0 -**

"This is the right way now! I'm sure of it!" Natsu reported to his companions as they entered a new hallway, making a beeline for the next stairway at the end of the corridor. Navigating through the maze-like castle had been a perplexing exercise. The scarf-wearing boy's nose had continuously pointed them in differing directions, which he deduced as someone changing the air currents to manipulate where Lucy' and Gajeel's scents were coming from. "I don't know why someone decided to screw with us by trying to throw us off-track, but I found 'em anyway. If that metal bastard so much as touched a hair on Lucy's head..."

"I don't think we have to worry about that. She's more valuable to them than just bait to lure us in," Loke said, even as the thought of the blonde girl being injured sickened him. "They could've had their pick of hurt members to take captive when we fought in Oak Town. They didn't just randomly go out of their way to come to Magnolia for her; she was their target all along."

"How do you know that?" Happy asked, feeling that the boy was aware of something they weren't.

Loke scowled angrily at himself. It had been years since last communicating with the zodiac spirits he knew she was contracted with, but he recalled their former master, and her wealthy background. "I'm such an idiot. I should've put it together sooner. Look, Lucy's the -"

He suddenly came to a halt, doubling over as he clutched at his abdomen in agony, losing his shades in the process. "What's wrong?" Natsu stopped as well. With his inherent motion sickness, he knew it was best to give him some room to breathe. "Talk to me, man. You feeling' alright? Lucy's waiting for us, so we gotta keep moving."

The auburn-haired wizard groaned out a curse as the pain apparently passed, straightening himself out. Happy picked up his sunglasses for him, which he slipped back on. "What were you saying about Lucy?"

Loke sighed, resuming pace with a slow walk. "She was a runaway when you guys first met her, right? She hasn't told anyone at the guild who she really is, where she came from," he offered softly. It was a horrible time to be suffering as punishment for his sins, but at least it gave him the clarity to see it was best to respect her privacy and keep from revealing her secret. "I guess that's something she'll have to let you in on herself, though."

As they approached the staircase, he found his drive again and lead them up, briskly hopping over steps. Moments later, they entered a long, rectangular chamber, with gently-swaying cloth banners along the wall, opposite a row of windows. Immediately they sensed the menacing aura in the room, the odd breeze picking up raucously until the banners were nearly blown off completely.

"How sad..." a voiced sounded out before a body could be identified. A second passed as the wind revealed a large man in a green coat and hat as the owner. He stood on the other end of the room, face at first obscured by his headgear. When he lifted his chin, they noticed the bandages around his eyes, dampened by the tears flowing through them. "Just as three of my allies have fallen, these three fairies still remain a pack."

"Three of your allies?" Natsu repeated with a small smirk. "Then you must be the last of those Element Four guys standing, huh? I knew the others would take care of them."

The man either nodded, or bowed his head in shame - his tears made it hard to tell. "My name is Aria," he intoned. "I am indeed the sole remaining member of the Element Four."

"You must be the one who made us chase through the entire hall looking for the right way to the top," Happy surmised.

"Correct," Aria confirmed. "I had hoped that such frustration would lead you to expedite Salamander's ascension through the outside, but you refused to depart from your friend."

"So you just wanted to get Loke alone, huh? Well you've got another pal that the two of us owe a visit to," Natsu said, embers flickering from his mouth. "What do ya say, man? Let's make this quick?" he asked for Loke's approval.

Aria cracked a disconcerting grin. "Legends drift of the arrogance of dragons, and one such example settled his wings in Phantom Lord. It seems you roost in the same nest." He raised his right palm, invoking a powerful gust. It swept the pink-haired boy up off his feet, throwing him to the base of the rising staircase. "Gajeel requested to deal with you for himself. And as for _you_," he said, turning his blindfolded gaze to Loke, "your windfall blows against that of your allies who faced the other Elements. I am the most powerful of them all, and I will not falter in upholding Master Jose's vision."

Loke glowered at Aria, as Happy regrouped with his best friend on the other side of the room. If he was at his full strength, he knew he would somehow, someway obliterate the villain who'd tried to cut him off from the others. Even now, he felt his energy being sapped, and he understood the perils of facing the leader of the Element Four were made especially grave. If Natsu lent a hand he might fare better, although there was still no guarantee that the body he'd tied to this world wouldn't give out without notice. Still, if there weren't any other options, he'd stake it all for the Celestial Wizard he'd promised to aid, no matter what.

"I'm not gonna let you take the lion's share of credit for getting Lucy out of here, Natsu, so if you wanna go on ahead, just know I'll be right behind you," he called to him. He then looked back at the man in green, his rings beginning to light up in preparation. "I'm honored that you wanna single me out, but I've got something to uphold, too, Aria 'The Atmosphere'. Move aside before the sky gets brought down on your head."

"The sky, you say?" Aria repeated, amused. "How sad, that you think you could have the influence akin to a star."

The Airspace Wizard began to lift his hand again, but an ominous sight kept him from attacking. Natsu and Happy looked over his wide shoulders, spotting the silvery mist spilling into the room from downstairs. Loke shifted his head slightly to keep his enemy in view, but was also confused about the meaning behind the clouds.

"If you'd rather try to earn Miss Heartfilia's favor, Loke," a voice, raspy but smooth at the same time, called to him as the gas began to mold itself into a solid shape, "I'd be willing to handle things here for you."

"Who are you?" Natsu asked of the latest addition to the scene, face scrunching in familiarity. The figure's features were guarded even more than Aria's by a pair of bandanas, and he wielded five wooden staves on his back. He'd never seen him before, but he had an aura about him that definitely spoke to him as a friend.

"Mystogan!" Happy shouted in awe. "You came to help, after all!"

The cloaked enigma nodded towards the cat. "So you weren't so dazed from battling The Beast as to forget about me," he said, his smile audible behind his mask. However, his tone was serious when he next addressed Aria. "If you're so committed to the destruction of our guild that your Master Jose wishes for, Aria, then why don't you try your hand at dispatching one of Fairy Tail's S-Class Wizards?"

"So the infamous Mystogan appears," Aria chuckled. Another burst of wind pushed Loke to the other end of the room, tackling into Natsu with a groan. "Gajeel should be pleased with the added bounty. I will accept the task of disproving your mythical strength."

Mystogan grinned at the irony of his statement, and slowly drew one of his staves. "Natsu, Loke, Happy. It's been awhile since I've been in town, so I've yet to see Miss Heartfilia for myself. You _will_ let me have that opportunity, won't you?"

The Dragon Slayer nodded with a vigorous grin as he and the other boy untangled themselves and stood. "You got it. Let's go, guys!" he said, the rescue trio giving him a signal of thanks for leaving them free and clear to continue up The Giant.

Aria focused on Mystogan, as he did the same, sizing up the opposition. Without any other outside forces, the chamber was theirs alone for their contest. Both men were ranked near the top in their respective organizations, so there was no chance the room would be left in such a luxurious condition once the victor was decided.

The wizard in blue made the opening move, using a deliberate sequence of hand motions to take aim. "Hydra Mist," he uttered, launching a fanged tether at his nemesis. Aria disrupted the composition of the attack with an invisible shot of air, but he played right into the true nature of Mystogan's technique. With a flick of his wrist, the decapitated snake lashed again as the body split into multiple, smaller versions of itself with new heads.

Aria vanished just before being being struck, the ground taking the damage instead. The wind shielded him from sight as he hovered several feet up, raising his palm at Mystogan. "Howl," he spoke, but his words were lost in the screaming beam of air he unleashed, shrill enough to shatter every window.

He felt his attack to be on target, but couldn't sense a direct hit. Mystogan's Mist Body scattered at the assault, before the wisps recollected into his normal form once more. "I can appreciate a good challenge, but I don't want to be engaged in a dull standstill for very long," he supplied, twirling his staff.

The waterworks were turned on again at the remark. "Then stand still, so I may put an end to this without drawing out your suffering," Aria said, a quiver in his throat as he landed gently. "The agony I must inflict, when you could choose to surrender instead of making such cruel comments, it makes me quite sad."

"Believe me when I say it was never your feelings I intended to hurt," Mystogan pointed the fanned end of his weapon, clarifying his motives. He placed his free hand on his forearm, creating a magic circle underneath Aria's feet. "Extrasensory."

"What in the -?" Aria's eyes widened underneath his bandages as he felt his otherwordly perception twist and contort. He pressed against his temples, stricken by the sharp pain in his brain that the spell induced. Without being able to derive anything concrete beyond the black of the wrapping, he was momentarily left open to a follow-up attack. Mystogan did not miss his window.

"Mist Ball," he whispered, forming an orb of vapor in his hand. He fired the compacted energy, resulting in a great eruption when it collided with Aria's unguarded torso.

The Element Four member was blown back, but another volatile gust took over the room to make him invisible after recovering. Mystogan held on to the bandana around his mouth, keeping it in place as he waited where Aria's response would come from. When he tried to move his hand away, he found himself completely immobilized by a pressure, enclosing his whole body in the position. He wasn't even given enough room for his lungs to expand his chest with breath.

"This is the power of my Air Lock," the man in green's voice echoed. "My comrade uses a similar spell more fitting of her element, although she was always decidedly more merciful than I in assessing a prone being. Now, I want to see how your body reacts if it has nowhere to dissipate to. Zetsu."

A powerful series of explosions rippled around Mystogan, bouncing his restrained form between them until he collapsed at the foot of the stairs. Aria chuckled in success and readied his hands for another attack, but was kept from casting when he sensed movement fast approaching from the outside. A wild roar prompted him to redirect his hand, and he immediately activated another Zetsu at the oncoming creature about to dive through the window - only for it to vanish into nothingness the moment it should've been shot from the sky.

"What're you aiming at?" Mystogan taunted, using his stave as support to rise. Only the slightest bit of his pain reached Aria's ears, infuriating him all the more at having been fooled by the illusion.

"You're not as clever as you think, boy!" he cried, capturing him in another Air Lock to set up one of his deadliest techniques. "Aeroblast!"

A massive, glowing whirlwind streamed from his hands with devastating force, but Mystogan had plotted the perfect counter. Under the guise of another misleading mirage, he'd planted his staves in front of him as Aria believed him to be under arrest. It was only at the last second did he realize his error, as he felt Mystogan's real motions summon three magic circles. The Aeroblast was absorbed by the seals, then reflected right back at him to land a punishing strike. He crashed into the wall beside the staircase entryway, the rubble piling up to keep him from view.

"You're not the only one who can utilize the environment to his advantage," the Fairy Tail mage said. "I'll have to remember to thank your friend; the moisture left over from her rain made casting my Mirror Water as simple as blinking, once you believed you had me where you wanted me."

As he expected, Aria didn't stay down for long. He pushed the broken bricks off of him with an Airspace, making sure not even a speck of dust remained on his garb. "You have proven yourself worthy," he muttered severely as he picked himself up. He began to slowly unwrap the bandages around his eyes, letting the breeze carry the fluttering cloth to the outside. "I was mistaken about the potency of your abilities. Your reputation is without exaggeration, and you are undoubtedly deserving of your S-Class rank. For that, I will allow you to witness _my_ true power."

Mystogan frowned. "Let me guess. None have experienced it and lived," he said dryly.

Aria smirked, slowly opening his eyes. "How sad..." he began, revealing his abnormal irises. They were a pair of pink dots, dissected into quarters by lines running in an X formation, unlike anything remotely imaginable in an ordinary person. "All of your renowned strength, you will lose it all... Even Flow!"

The blue-cloaked wizard braced himself, as winds equivalent to tornadoes completely surrounded him. He was boxed in, with his expanding Mist Body being a detriment against the streams coming from all sides. He also felt in the currents their volatile energy, knowing that trying to pass through in his corporal form would only set off another round of its explosive charges. There was nothing he could do but smile at the situation, and arrange for the victory all but assured to him.

"Is that fear running through your veins?" Aria asked, looming behind him with both palms held out. "Soon they will be void of magic. Drain!"

He activated the same attack that had decimated Fairy Tail's Master, a bright light illuminating Mystogan's being. Immediately, however, Aria's stomach dropped. He felt nothing being strewn about by the sharp winds. There was no life-force, the essence of a mage, billowing through the room and drifting into the sky through the broken windows as it was released from his opponent.

Mystogan calmly turned around to face his would-be assailant. "I suppose the fear left my veins, because now it's in your eyes."

"What is this?!" Aria demanded. "Another illusion?!"

Mystogan's swift hand motions sparked the ring his staffs formed around Aria, creating a luminous pillar barrier layered with five seals. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret: you were actually right about my powers all along," he said as the winds died down. "I suppose it wouldn't be improper to call them a myth. You see, your Drain spell has no effect on me, because I don't possess an ounce of magic energy in my body."

"How is that possible?! You're supposed to be an S-Class Wizard!"

"Fairy Tail doesn't hand out S-Class titles just because Master Makarov is impressed by your strength," Mystogan explained. "He takes into consideration the intellect and heart of those he selects as candidates for the trials. I didn't earn my standing by being in a different tier magically; I accomplished it by every other qualification, including being able to outstrategize any problem before me. Of course, having five wooden staves imbued with phenomenal strength each didn't hurt, either."

Aria's mouth hung agape, and his eyes widened at the revelation. "You will kill me for knowing this, won't you?" he stammered.

"Fairy Tail is no guild for killers," he began, crossing his arms. "No, despite your transgressions, there isn't one member that wants any of you Phantom Lord wizards dead. Revenge doesn't have to extend to such lengths, something your Master is seemingly unable to comprehend.

"But, for what you have done to _my_ Master, and the crimes your guild has committed against mine, punishment in in order." Mystogan turned his back to Aria, his next words spoken over his shoulder. "Sacred Song."

The thin light shining through the center of the pillar widened at his command. Aria bellowed in pain as he was dealt Mystogan's ultimate technique, until his unique irises shut along with his screams as he was utterly defeated. He stiffly fell backwards, and the magicless man collected his five weapons. As he added the last to his back, he poked his hooded head out of a window, just barely being able to make out two figures marching through the battlefield. The others focused their attacks to clear a path for them, allowing the dots topped with red and white to continue to preserve their strength for their upcoming encounter.

Mystogan smirked under his bandana. It wasn't Master Makarov, but this pair might be even more terrifying.

**- 0 -**

Gajeel inhaled loudly and deeply through his pierced nostrils. "Salamander's just about here," he cast a fanged grin at Lucy. "It's pathetic that none of those Element Four managed to get a damn thing right. Aria wasn't even able to separate him from that glasses-wearin' punk. But I've been lookin' forward to this all day, so now that this is finally happening, I guess I can't be too pissed."

"You know you're just gonna lose," Lucy shot back. "You wanna take on Natsu so bad? He's practically unstoppable when he's fired up. And if Loke's with him, you don't stand a chance. I've seen him get serious, so you'd be doing yourself a favor by just giving up now."

Gajeel laughed, the echoes reverberating around the grand circular room inside The Giant's head. Once the fortress had come to a stop, he'd transferred Lucy up there with him in anticipation for his rematch with Natsu. It seemed he took some twisted joy in relaying every time one of his own guildmates was defeated, probably because it incited her to comment on how he would meet the same result.

"Stick around and watch as I beat down the two of 'em," he said. "I'm hoping that taking them apart won't kill all that sass of yours. It's more fun when you've got someone rooting against you."

Lucy returned his smirk with an angry glare. For a moment they held their expressions, until the room was rocked by the doors being blown off their hinges. For once, she was thankful to see the dark smoke and flickering flames of Natsu's signature entrance. The Dragon Slayer's silhouette was visible through the smoke the instant before he charged into the room, Loke and Happy right at his heels.

"Hey Lucy!" he called out to her furiously. When he verified she was seemingly unharmed, he gave a smirk not unlike his fated opponent's. "I'm glad to see you've saved some of 'Black Steel' Gajeel for me! I had dibs, you know!"

She felt a weight lift off her shoulders at his ability to banter. "I was going easy on him, don't worry!" she answered with a smile, holding up her tied wrists. "He's all yours now!"

"You kept me waiting for quite awhile, Salamander," Gajeel said dangerously, cracking his knuckles with a clinking sound as he began to move forward. "I was starting to get worried you might not show."

"Sorry. Never really got in the habit of being on time," Natsu replied, also flexing his fists with a spark effect.

Happy and Loke raced around the outer perimeter of the room, meeting up with Lucy at the halfway point as she slipped by her captor. "He didn't hurt you, did he?" the cat asked with great concern.

"No, I'm fine," she offered a bright smile.

Loke took her bound hands, taking in their warmth for a quick second. "Good to hear," he whispered. A ring on his left index finger lit up, casting a small, translucent blade to sever the ropes. He gently consoled her wrists with a soft expression, almost enough to make them forget of the battle about to start.

"Give me some credit," Gajeel announced to the side. "What the hell kind of dumbass would I be to attack the girl we're being paid to return to her father? We're not like you fairies; we do our jobs _right_ here at Phantom Lord."

Natsu would've asked him elaborate on his first statement, but that was before he made the second with extra vitriol. "Oh yeah?!" he cried, taking off for the rugged boy as flames enhanced his speed. "Say that again after I kick your teeth down your throat!"

Gajeel ducked underneath the flaming foot aimed at his jaw, going back with a right hook. Natsu swiftly moved his head back, allowing Gajeel's arm to wildly miss. Normally that would've left him extremely open, but Black Steel knew exactly what he was doing. "Iron Dragon's Elbow!" he cried out, a steel beam extending out of his joint. The flat end caught Natsu near the top of his cranium, sending him reeling.

He shook off the blow in time to notice Gajeel coming at him with another fist. This time he evaded by going into his opponent body's, allowing him to thrust into the center of his chest with a similar attack. "Fire Dragon's Elbow!" he yelled, the resulting explosion from the contact knocking his opponent back a few yards.

The two paused for a moment, processing the first blows landed with stony determination. Gajeel was the first to let up, cracking a grin. "I'm gonna be honest with ya, Salamander. Master Jose's grudge against Fairy Tail, the job that Heartfilia tool hired us for, I don't really give a damn about any of that noise. All I've wanted this whole time was a good fight, and if it meant being the bad guy to find someone who could get my blood on their knuckles, then I wouldn't have a problem going along with all this."

At this point, Loke had been leading Lucy out of the room, Happy over their heads. Just as they were a sound leap away from making it through the busted entrance, though, Gajeel punched a wide, thick metal bracing over the hole in the wall, preventing their escape. Loke glared at him, having reflexively stopped Lucy with his arm. "You'll be adding that to the long list of bad moves you've made," he warned callously. "I don't care for being in the audience; I'd rather have the spotlight."

"We talked about this, Loke," Natsu growled without looking back. "The deal was, I get Gajeel while you get Lucy out of here. Just because you can't do your part anymore doesn't mean you can get in on mine. You guys stand back and keep her safe."

Gajeel laughed at their discord. "We still need Blondie, so just sit tight. You'll get your turn after I'm through with Salamander, Loverboy."

"No, he won't!" Natsu growled at him, rushing at him with fists ablaze. "_I'm_ taking you down, so you can just forget about him!"

"Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel grinned, launching his arm as a metal column at Natsu. He jumped over to evade the blow and ran atop the beam with incredible balance, but Gajeel was able to knock him off by producing a second club from the first. He struck Natsu in the midsection, and extended the attack to drive him into the wall. Leaving him cratered, he retracted his arm and poised to follow up with the other.

"Fire Dragon's Flare Claw!" Natsu exclaimed, using his variation of solid flames to latch on to the incoming club. He used it to pull himself from the wall, catapulting straight for the iron mage as the eruption around his whole body powered his velocity. "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!"

Gajeel choked out in pain as Natsu rammed skull-first into his chest, the same spot he'd been hit before. He flew back into the opposite wall from the force, taking a moment to gather his breath before pulling himself from the imprint he'd left. Wincing, he noticed Natsu had on a similar expression, holding the top of his head where he'd also taken prior damage. "This is what I'm talkin' about! Someone who knows how to fight!" he lauded savagely. "This is exactly what I needed after those three losers from your guild weren't able to make it any fun for me!"

Lucy, Loke, and Happy stiffened at the reminder of what Gajeel had done to Levy and her team, but Natsu became livid. He charged again, Gajeel also dashing towards him. The two met for a flurry of blocked blows, a series of metallic punches and fiery kicks stopped by forearms and forelegs. Natsu finally managed to land a strike, ducking under a kick aimed for his head and impressively responding with a pivoting heel kick to the jaw. "That was for Shadow Gear!" he said, immediately looking for a consecutive punch. "And this is for -!"

Whoever he was dedicating his attack to devolved into a howl of pain, as his fist crashed into a steel coating over Gajeel's body. He shook his hand as he backed away, as his enemy guffawed at how he'd surprised him into an ineffective blow with the measure. "Iron Dragon Scales look pretty badass, huh?" Gajeel taunted as his whole frame gleamed in the sunlight. "But as you probably figured out, they're not just for show."

The Celestial Wizard looked on, frightened by the transfiguration. "How's Natsu supposed to hurt him now?" Lucy asked as Gajeel went back on the offensive, throwing his plated limbs straight at the Fire Dragon Slayer.

"He'll figure out a way," Happy said unequivocally, inclining his head. "He just needs to adjust to the recoil, and he'll be fine."

Even with his flames absorbing some of Gajeel's reinforced strikes, Natsu knew he was losing ground. The Iron Dragon Slayer's speed and strength had picked up to keep him backpedaling, and every block stung more and more at the bruises being left. He finally saw his counter as he went low to avoid a blow, going for a sweep at the knees. Gajeel hopped over his leg, but Natsu sprang back up with a fiery uppercut to the jaw. He looked to build up a combo, but Gajeel instead revolved around his ensuing punch and connected with a backfist.

"Keep up with me, dammit!" he commanded as he resumed his barrage. "Or is this really the best Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer can do?"

With an pain-fueled yell, Natsu pushed Gajeel back by releasing an intense burst of fire from his body. His emotions for his guild and friends were given life as an inferno, intensifying his own capabilities. He closed the gap he created with a leaping punch, clobbering the left side of his opponent's head. The others witnessed Gajeel's eyes widen in bewilderment as his face swiveled in their direction, and he dropped to a knee. "Why do you look so shocked?" Natsu demanded. "Those scales are nothing!"

With his foe's position, the scarfed boy stepped off his knee to deliver a monstrous kick to the left temple again. He landed gingerly on his foot, throbbing from the blow, but it was a fraction of the damage Gajeel had taken. He was slow to get back up, reaching up to where he'd been struck. His face morphed from fury at the spiderwebbing in his defense, into an expression of amusement a second later. "You actually managed to crack my head open," he said with a disturbing grin. "Nicely done. But, that's as far as you're gonna get, Salamander."

Natsu's pyro cackled at the remark. "That's just bad-guy for 'I've had enough'," he smirked. "I was hoping to trash you for a little while longer, but if you're ready to end this right now, I guess I can still go give Jose what he's got coming."

Gajeel sneered. "You've got a real problem with gettin' ahead of yourself, you know that?"

The light in their reptilian eyes shared that they were planning the same thought. Both Dragon Slayers planted their feet as sturdily as they could, filling their magical lungs with air to break down into special energy. Their cheeks ballooned to triple in size, and they placed their hands in front of their mouths to direct the destruction they were about to unleash upon one another.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

Natsu's torrent of flames collided with Gajeel's blunt vortex, resulting in a massive explosion that rocked the entirety of The Giant's head. Happy had been protected by Lucy cradling him in her arms, while Loke had cushioned her when they were flung back into the metal panel covering the doorway. Meanwhile, the two combatants were nearly incapacitated from the move, using the walls they'd crashed into as support to shakily get to a vertical base.

"You're not lookin' so hot over there now, Black Steel," Natsu said smugly, just as he almost toppled over.

Gajeel grinned venomously through his mess of hair, then noticed the area above his head. "I'm doin' just fine, thanks." His column-like arm extended upwards, towards the window that served as the eye of The Giant, with his hand intact. He grabbed the sill as readily as a magnet, then pulled down on the structure, breaking off a heavy chunk of steel. Bearing his fangs, he shoveled the piece into his mouth, and voraciously crunched away.

"Oh no..." Happy whispered as he trembled, Lucy quickly picking up on what had him so spooked. A Dragon Slayer always regenerated his strength after eating his element.

Natsu growled as Gajeel laughed like a man possessed, a surging pale-green aura outlining his figure. "Read for round two?" the reinvigorated Phantom Lord mage asked, his fractured scales healing up completely. He dashed at Natsu with tremendous speed, repeatedly punching him even deeper into the weakened wall with little resistance. "You're falling behind again, Salamander! I know! Why don't you help yourself to some iron!"

"Natsu!" Lucy watched in horror as Gajeel clutched the hapless boy's pink hair, and bulleted him straight into the remaining window sill face-first. "Stop it!" she cried as he was crushed against the metal, his tortured howling muffled out. She was too concerned to realize Loke had let go of her, and was instead holding out a familiar leather keycase.

"That's enough," he intoned powerfully, drawing Gajeel's gaze. "You've made your point. Now you've gotta go through _me_."

"I'm not sure your friend here would like you jumping in very much," he smirked as he released Natsu, who dropped to the floor with a flat thud. "He'd probably appreciate it a lot more if you had some fire for him."

"I don't think eating my Hardlight Magic would do Natsu any good," Loke said, still waiting for Lucy to take her keys. "It might work better on you."

The mention of his rings' abilities snapped the blonde girl back to reality. She'd never known exactly what brand of magic Loke practiced, but most of the considerable spells she'd seen him use before didn't quite add up to that designation. Nevertheless, Lucy held his hand for a moment before slipping away with her case, leaving in it the warmth of her trust in him. She unfortunately couldn't support Natsu with fire, either, but she had faith Loke would pick up where he left off.

Sparing one last nod at Lucy, the auburn-haired boy charged into the fray with fists shining. Gajeel ducked under his swing and tried to respond, but he only connected with a lion-shaped shield made of physical orange light. He leapt back to avoid an offensive counter in that range, but distance was no concern for Loke. "Hardlight Claw!" he shouted, a large four-pronged paw swiping at Gajeel's armored body.

He grinned as he stopped his momentum, then went right back at Loke. The two engaged in a flurry of blows, Loke landing a few good hits with Hardlight Gauntlets on his fists. However, Gajeel wasn't able to strike him even once, thanks to that Hardlight Shield of his. "I know your magic's gotta have a breaking point!" he exclaimed with a grin. "Let's see how long it holds up to _this_! Iron Dragon's Sword!"

His arm turned into a serrated blade, the jagged spikes beginning to spin about like a nightmarish chainsaw. He began to slash away at the shield, his aggression too overbearing for Loke to properly counter. The whirring sword bounced off the lion's head five times, but the six time was the charm, shattering it into fading pixels. Loke reacted immediately to the loss, jumping back as he pointed his ring at him. "Hardlight Spear!"

Four sharp beams fired at Gajeel, who swiftly moved out of the crosshairs. As he was about to gloat over the miss, his peripheral vision caught the beams redirect at an angle in midair, homing straight into his left side. They audibly pierced his scales, remaining lodged in his chest, shoulder and arm as he glowered angrily at Loke. "That really would've hurt if they'd gone through my skin," he snarled, revving his sword again after it'd stopped from the attack, and sliced the spears away.

"Then I'll be sure to get under that steel with _this_," Loke said, raising his arm and invoking a large, wicked halo over his head. It began to whirl like Gajeel's weapon, creating a static-like noise that simply permeated danger. "I think you've taken up enough of Fairy Tail's time," he decreed as he slid his glasses up his nose, just before rearing back and releasing his spell. "Destructo Disk!"

Gajeel knew he needed to avoid that disk, and wasn't going to chance another targeting feature. "Iron Dragon's Daggers!" his left hand cast a circle, from which a whole barrage of small blades shot out. The disk tore through the shrapnel at first, but was eventually shredded into pixelization inches away from him. Smirking sadistically, he didn't let up the daggers, finally reaching his new opponent's unprotected body.

"Loke!" Lucy screamed as he was maimed. Gajeel had ripped through Loke's designer wardrobe, leaving him covered in bloody gashes that at the very least appeared shallow. Still, with so many injuries inflicted, he wouldn't be able to keep fighting on near-equal footing with the S-Class Wizard.

"Just a flesh wound," he said, turning his wince into a wink, but there was little assurance in his voice. "Looks like I'm gonna have to actually get serious now. I'm sorry."

Lucy wasn't sure what he was apologizing to her for, but Gajeel took it as though he was speaking to him. "I had a feeling you were holding back," he said with narrowed eyes. "Now quit playin' around. I'm sure Blondie here wants to see you go all out."

Loke stood up straight with a hardened gaze, the light from his rings now shined gold instead of orange. "Regulus Beam!" he shouted, firing off a heavy blast that knocked Gajeel across the entire room. As much as it had damaged the Dragon Slayer, however, he immediately felt himself drastically weaken for using his true magic. He was down to one option, and that was to finish Gajeel before he was rendered useless.

Gajeel had a tough time getting back up, his smirk nowhere near as prominent as before. The attack had caused the cracks from earlier to spread, giving the impression that his plating wouldn't sustain much more. "So that's the kind of strength you were hiding?" he growled as he began to move towards Loke. He hated to admit it, but he'd probably be needing another dose of iron soon.

Lucy and Happy were in awe over how beat up Gajeel was after that one move. Loke's Hardlight Magic was capable, yes, but with that up his sleeve, why hadn't he been using Regulus from the onset of the fight? And why did she feel like she should know what Regulus was supposed to be?

His eyes glowing with razor-focus, Loke was through with the battle dialogue. "Lionheart," he uttered, casting a great seal beneath Gajeel's feet. He paused as he was encircled by a constellation of miniature stars, their ethereal energy vibrant enough for the three others in the room to feel. But just as he was about to activate their explosive function, the symptoms of his ghosts proved too much.

"Oh no! Loke!" Lucy paled as he collapsed to all fours.

"What's going on with you?" Happy asked, frightened for his well-being. This had happened to the boy earlier, when they'd been making their way up The Giant, but now was the worst time for his ailment to flare up again. He noted that Gajeel was thinking the same, as he grinned when all the lights around him went out.

"No... Not yet..." Loke pleaded towards the ground. He craned his neck to see their anguished faces, and even caught Natsu staring at him with worry.

"Iron Dragon's Tremor!" Gajeel took full advantage of his debilitation, pounding a fist into the ground to create a wave of clubs snaking towards the still boy. They plowed into him with a vengeance, eliciting a defeated cry as he was thrown into the air. "Two for two, huh?" he commented smugly as he looked over the carnage. Loverboy was down, and Salamander had yet to stand as well. "You can make this easy for yourself now, Blondie. Or, do you wanna step in with your little spirits? They sound like they could be fun, too."

"No!" Natsu called defiantly, wobbling to his feet. "Now that Loke gave me a breather, I'm tagging myself back in! I said I was gonna beat you, and I'm gonna make good on that!"

Gajeel couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably at the claim. This allowed Happy to furrow his brow and plot with Lucy. "Are you sure none of your Celestial Spirits can make any fire for Natsu?" the cat pressed. "If we can just give him a boost, I know he'll win!"

"I really don't think so," Lucy asked, her voice wavering as she opened her keycase. She studied her collection for a solution to their woes, not just for who could create fire, but also for who could be the biggest threat if Gajeel went after her again. "None of them have that kind of ability... Not Aquarius, Taurus, or Cancer, or Virgo... I haven't even made a contract with this one yet, Sagittarius..."

"Sagittarius?" Loke asked from his back, his voice labored and feeble. "You have Sagittarius? Summon him, right now."

All eyes turned to him. Gajeel even allowed the repose, for the sake of another potential round. Lucy wanted to ask what Loke knew about her latest acquisition, but his instructions were as resolute as he could manage, and she was in no position to argue. "I'm sorry for asking for your help without a contract, but we could really use it right now!" she said, holding her Golden Key high. "Open, Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!"

Shortly after a bright flash filled the room, Lucy was excited to see her newest ally, even with his unique garb. He was a tall man in gentlemanly attire, but the brown horse head he wore like a helmet was... strange, to say the least. Nevertheless, he was dutifully saluting straight on, with his impressive bow and quiver standing out as much as anything else. "You beckoned me, milady?" he asked.

"Yeah!" she nodded. "I know this is all so sudden, but I need to know if you can create fire!"

"I cannot," Sagittarius said, still saluting. Since he was facing away from his unofficial master, he didn't notice Lucy deflate at his response.

"But we can make some if we work together," Loke said, the climb back to his feet inhibited by his rings sparking to life again. "Remember? Just like back then."

Sagittarius' face, which had remained wholly unflinching up until now, filled with astonishment as his eyes fell on the cosmically-handsome boy. "Can it be? Is that really you, L-"

"No time for that," Loke cut him off pointedly. He didn't want Lucy to find out just yet, even as he could practically see the gears turning in her mind. "The guy with the scarf, he's the one."

"Yes sir! We shall defeat that rose-haired villain!" he announced, drawing a trio of arrows and pulling back. Lucy and Happy protested Loke's intentions, but the bolts had already been let to fly.

It was only until Loke released another blast of Regulus, a ray for the arrows to zip through, did they understand his plan. The ultimate solar heat caused the metallic barbs to catch fire, which easily spread down the wooden handles. Natsu reacted on pure instinct at the blaze rushing towards him, and devoured every trace of the burning shots.

"Oh, yeah," he said with a snarling grin, welcoming the new found glory with his eyes aglow and body combusting. "Now I've got a fire in my belly!"

"He's our ally," Loke explained to the confused Sagittarius. "He just needed a little snack to get him going."

The Archer nodded, saluting as Lucy and Happy glomped the fellow. "Thanks so much!" she said as tears of joy began to stream down her face. Finally, this fight was about to end.

Gajeel knew how much the tables had turned on him. Loverboy had managed to deplete the extra power he'd gained from consuming iron, but now he was on the wrong side of a Dragon Slayer's elemental consumption. And of course, Salamander had to be between him and the window sills. He needed to be fast. "That's still not enough to beat me!" he raged, even though they all sensed the bluff. He charged towards his opponent once more, with a feint in mind.

Natsu evaded his low-to-high club swing, picking up his ploy when Gajeel tried to maneuver into another grab for The Giant's eye structures. "Why go for the leftovers when you can have something new?" he asked, unloading a series of incendiary projectiles into his weakened side. "Try some fire instead, on me!"

Gajeel groaned as he slowly picked himself up. "You feel proud of yourself, Salamander?" he spat disdainfully. "You couldn't get it done one-on-one. This all came down to the whole lot of you fairies getting involved. If they weren't here to save your sorry ass..."

Natsu chuckled. "You've got a good point. I can't say I'm totally happy about how this worked out from a personal standpoint, but really, this is what we're all about at Fairy Tail. You wanna come after one of us? You better be prepared to take on _all_ of us, 'cause you'll never catch us truly alone. Shadow Gear's a team of three, and even though they lost, they fought together. The guys defending our guild hall, and the ones that took out your Element Four, they weren't gonna let us down, and we weren't gonna do it to them, either. Loke and I came here to save Lucy, and you ended up getting a piece of everyone. So am I proud of myself? Not entirely. But I'm damn proud of my friends, and that's what really counts."

The Iron Dragon Slayer bore his fangs. He'd never bought that 'together' crap Fairy Tail was spewing. He'd learned to stand alone. He'd made a name for himself as a ferociously powerful S-Class Wizard, all on his own merit. He hadn't needed to rely on anyone, not since that bastard Metalicana had abandoned him. So why was Salamander's speech getting to him so much? What was it making him feel?

"I'm not through yet!" he challenged, turning both of his arms into his buzzing swords. "If you wanna beat me, then come at me with everything you've got!"

Bursting with pyro, Natsu ran to meet Gajeel in the center of the room again, more than willing to comply. "Fire Dragon's Secret Art!" he started, nearly shrouded by his extreme conflagration. "Crimson Lotus Radiant Wave Surge!"

A tower of inferno was let loose from his outspread palm, wide enough to blast Gajeel, and punch a great hole through The Giant's head. His attack was visible for anyone watching from the ground, and the Fairy Tail forces immediately knew who was responsible for such destruction. It was a beacon, symbolizing Natsu's victory over 'Black Steel' Gajeel.

When the smoke cleared, Happy flew straight for the exhausted boy. "You did it, Natsu!" he squeaked. "We defeated all of Phantom Lord's best wizards!"

As the cat perched in his hair, Natsu spared one last look at Gajeel's body on the floor. He could've sworn that right before striking him, the Iron Dragon Slayer had been wearing a smirk. It wasn't of bitterness, or resentment, but more of begrudging respect for having lost, and how it'd been accomplished. "No, not all of them, Happy," he said a moment later. "They've still got Jose."

"After everything we've all been through," Loke began, being propped up initially by Lucy before Natsu came to help pick up the slack, "is there any way we can face him?"

Lucy nodded with renewed conviction. "We won't have a choice if he doesn't stop all of this. But we've come this far working together, so we're not gonna let him win now, got it?" She'd seen the power of her guild's bonds. As long as they supported one another and helped each other up, just as the boys had done for her, and she and Natsu were literally doing for Loke now, there was no way one man's treacherous plans could be able to surpass the combination of all the members' hearts. Just like the rest of Phantom Lord could attest, Jose would learn they were invincible when striving towards a single goal.

**- 0 -**

"And you're sure we can believe her?" Lisanna asked warily. After vanquishing their respective threats, she, Elfman, and Gray all encountered one another in a grand hall. The soaked boy had brought with him Juvia of the Element Four, who had decided to turn her back on her guild's mission and help them put an end to the war. Lisanna wanted to have faith that the girl was being sincere, but to do so without reservation could be catastrophic.

"I understand your skepticism," Juvia bowed her head. "My Element teammates have been defeated. There is little doubt Lucy Heartfilia will be rescued. It is foolish to continue this needless violence, so no one else should be hurt. I only want to be a familiar voice for Master Jose to consider."

"This better not be some kind of trap," Elfman imposed, crossing his arms. He had been overjoyed at his sister's reaction when he said he'd mastered his Full Body Take Over, but the celebration had been cut short with Gray' and Juvia's arrival. If she could indeed follow through on what she aimed for, then he'd owe the Water Wizard an apology for being so gruff as a result.

"Trust me when I say trust her," Gray answered simply, making Juvia beam and blush with his backing. Lisanna and Elfman both gave her encouraging nods, and she began to lead them out of the room.

However, as they reached the doors, they were flung open by a dark shockwave. The four braced themselves, but couldn't prepare for how the force felt. It was evil, chilling the group that included an ice mage to their very cores. "Juvia, my darling," an even voice said, as a tall man in a blue military-style uniform approached through the entrance. "Care to explain the meaning of this?"

Despite his placid tone, they all understood the edge he was hiding. "Master Jose," Juvia began carefully, stepping further towards him. "Please, we shouldn't further this matter any more. Phantom Lord has failed its mission. It'd be best to retreat and leave Fairy Tail be."

Jose tilted his head, raising an eyebrow with a grin. "Oh? But this guild still has one of its strongest able to fight and eradicate them."

The Rainfall bowed at the waist. "I'm appreciative of your praise, Master, but I cannot engage -"

She was cut off as she straightened herself, blasted with a pure black beam that sent her flying into the back wall.

"Juvia!" Gray yelled as the others gasped.

"Stupid girl," Jose smirked, closing the palm that he'd used to strike her down. "You thought I was speaking about you? I never would've guessed you'd be so insolent, Juvia. You refuse to fight on my behalf, and you dare ask me to spare these fairies? It's a shame, but it seems that I'll have to kill you along with them."

"How could you do that to her?!" Gray demanded, outraged over what had just transpired. "She was one of your own, you bastard!"

He and the others began summoning their magic in response to his atrocity, but Jose turned his cataclysmic attack to the remaining three. They all slumped against the wall with Juvia, the collection barely clinging to a rapidly-fading world.

"She chose to align herself with the side that would be wiped out," they heard Jose chuckle, right before passing out. "For betraying Phantom Lord, your punishment, Juvia, will be to die together with your new little friends. I hope you enjoyed your short-lived time with them, my dear, because I know _I_ will enjoy finishing you off, one by one. So, who to begin with?"

He hadn't cared for how mouthy the dark-haired boy had been, so he decided he'd be the first casualty. Jose held up his hand as it was enveloped with a terrible glow, preparing to end his life, but a cry from outside the room preceded a crescent energy projectile that knocked his arm back.

"Jose! I'll never allow you to hurt my friends!" Erza roared, storming into the scene wearing her Black Wing Armor. Despite holding his right limb, he was able to effortlessly dodge all of the swings she came at him with.

"I love that you're still so feisty after taking a blast from the Jupiter Cannon!" Jose laughed as each pass was even further from the last. "And pray tell, how is Miss Strauss faring after the ordeal?"

"See for yourself!" Mirajane called out from behind, revealing herself from upstairs. "Demon Void!" Erza had lured him to a magic seal she'd set up, and once Jose stepped inside, she activated its effect. He was enveloped in an opaque purple dome, which was able to contain the powerful implosion with little consequence to the outside.

The young women regrouped cautiously. They hadn't expected to have won so easily, but it was still jarring to see the man merely brushing his shoulder off after that attack. "Well, isn't this convenient?" he asked menacingly as the veiling dust disappeared. "I'd been hoping to personally dismantle Fairy Tail's most beloved S-Class girls. To be able to finish you both at once is quite the treat! Dark Repulser!"

With a sweep of his arm, he expelled a series of slashing bursts at the team. Erza placed herself before them, parrying the bulk of the onslaught as her enchanted armor helped reduced the damage of the spell she missed. When Jose's turn ended, Mira went next, jumping over Erza with a swirling mass in between her palms. "Evil Explosion!" she shouted, hurling the orb at their enemy.

Again, the force behind her blow was great, but the Wizard Saint's incredible durability was on exhibition, as he was hardly phased by the effects. "I see Erza didn't cut any corners with her choice of armor, Mirajane. Maybe you'd have better luck if you used one of your Take Overs?" he mocked, the white of his eyes featuring an spreading black. "I hear it does wonders for Darkness Magic. Unfortunately, I have to do with just this form, but I believe it's worked out fairly well for me. Wouldn't you agree?!"

With just his index fingers pointing at Erza and Mira, he released rapid-fire shots at the girls, forcing them to scatter. He cackled at having them divide due to his ballistic attacks, but it provided a critical opportunity. The redhead was able to deflect one of his beams back at him with the perfect motion of her blade, striking him in the chest and stunning him. This opened the door for Mira in Satan Soul to swoop in, snatching around his head with her claws. She drove him into the high ceiling above, and refused him any mercy as she let loose a dark blast that punched him through several more floors.

"Think that was enough?" Erza asked, keeping a strong grip on her weapon's handle.

"Hope so," Mira answered in her demonic voice. She turned to the row of four bodies along the wall, anxiety tugging at her chest to see her siblings and Gray in such a state. "We have to get them out of here."

Before they could make any movements towards them, the hole in the ceiling served as a gateway for a barrage of Shades. The hoard filled the entire room, leaving just enough space for Jose to slowly levitate through the portal, his stare holding nothing but baleful contempt.

"You know, if you were fighting at your full strength, I imagine that your combined powers would be enough to surpass me," he growled with eery calm, the girls bracing themselves as his horrific aura permeated throughout the hall. "But, just because you're not at your utmost capacity, doesn't mean that I should play to your level. Fairy Tail has never stood on even ground with Phantom Lord, and I will eliminate your guild to show the world how wrong they were to have thought otherwise!"

Pointing, he commanded his Shades to swarm in. Mira and Erza did their best to hack and slash through their numbers, forming a corporal barrier between their enemies and their allies, but it wouldn't be long before their defense was breached. They understood performing something drastic was the only way to clear the threat against their targeted friends, even if it would work for Jose's ploy to deplete their magic even faster.

Realizing she didn't have much time left in her taxing Take Over anyway, the white-haired girl wrapped herself in a sparking sphere. "Yomi Field!" Mira launched herself for Jose as Erza hopped aside, the shadowy light emanating from her disintegrating his remaining troops in her dash. She meant to bulldoze into the man, but despite being in the vicinity of her spell, he grinned painfully as he moved at the last possible second. Mira made him pay for his arrogance, condensing the last of her field into her heavy tail, and whipping it into his chest.

Erza saw the opportunity her rival had sacrificed her place in the battle for, as she reverted back to normal after her bludgeoning swipe. "Moon Flash!" she released another pair of crescent waves at Jose, finding the mark against the man in his graceless instant, and sending him plowing even further into the far wall.

"It's up to you now, Erza," Mira sighed with a tired smile, her powerlessness making her paler than usual. She began to retreat as an active combatant, intending to watch over the defeated, but in her worn state, she was unable to move away when the redhead screamed her name.

"Mira!" she cried, Requipping out of her armor to catch the model after she was blasted in the back by Jose. She held on to her, making sure she was still breathing, before glaring at Jose. He slowly pulled himself back from wherever he'd been knocked into, all of their previous attacks finally taking their toll on him. "You don't have any honor, you monster! You would attack someone who isn't even facing you?! And that woman there, she's a member of your guild, and you turned your cruelty on her!"

"A little girl like you has no business trying to lecture _me_, Miss Scarlet," he shot back venomously, cracking his stiff neck. "I began this war, and I will have no other outcome than to triumph. The Element Four were given exact orders, but Juvia rebelled, and so she was removed from the proceedings. Where was the honor in her defying her Master, hmm? It's pathetic to think of such things when the idea is to kill your enemies."

"_You're_ the pathetic one," Erza said, trembling as she laid Mira safely behind a pillar. "Even if Fairy Tail falls today, Phantom Lord will be disbanded by the Magic Council. Is that the sort of pyrrhic victory you've wanted this whole time? You'll have won, but at the cost of your freedom, your reputation, your guild! And what of the wizards who call this place home? Don't you care at all about what will become of them?"

Jose laughed maniacally, showing his true, selfish colors. "As if I'm supposed to care about those fools! Ever since the first generation of S-Class Wizards I inherited when I took over Phantom Lord retired, I've had nothing but lowly peons to try and keep alive our legacy as the best guild in Fiore! Meanwhile, Fairy Tail had the likes of Gildarts, and Ivan, and Macao to build up their name! It was infuriating to hear Makarov brag about his 'children' at meetings, especially how he prattled on about all the younglings such as yourself, and even more so to see how everyone simply adored his stories!

"I vowed to myself that I would never accept the shame of being outdone by that dwarf! I accumulated the greatest elemental mages I could find, and while they were unsuccessful in vanquishing you, they've allowed me to kill you for myself, and destroy the favor that Makarov has stolen from me! Even if it means my downfall, as well, Fairy Tail _will_ be swallowed up in my wrath!" Jose shouted, casting his malignant aura around himself again as the ground trembled beneath them. "This is my pride, as Phantom Lord's Guild Master!"

Erza Requipped back into her Black Wing set, flying around and through his black beams to counterattack with her sword. "Your vindictive soul will accomplish nothing!" she yelled, taking only the most precise of swings once she was in range. He danced around her attacks, grinning like a madman in the face of her resolve. However, his overconfidence again proved the sieve in his evasion, as he was caught off-guard by her changing tactics. "Purgatory Armor!"

His hellish eyes were blinded by the light Erza flashed in her Requip, leaving him to suffer a calamitous strike to the sternum with her new weapon. The spiked megaton mace, featuring a much longer reach than her blade, caught him in the same region as Mira's parting attack, hammering him through wall after wall of his precious headquarters.

Erza lost count of how many smashes she heard, her body near collapse from being at her magical limit. Summoning her strongest armor required a sizable quantity, but being as how that was all she had left, it had burned through her reserves. "Is this finally over?" she asked herself softly, catching her breath. He couldn't tank all of the hits she and Mira had landed, could he?

She got her answer as a group of ghoulish tendrils phased through the wall, snaking around Erza to wrap her up and pin her limbs to her sides. She cried out at the crushing pressure they applied, as well as the blinding pain being in contact with them invoked. She didn't struggle for very long before her magic gave out, and her armor was relinquished back into its dimensional pocket.

Jose reappeared through the shadowed holes in the wall, his shoulders and back sagging at the damage he'd been inflicted to that point. "Don't you know, Miss Scarlet?" he asked with noticeable strain as the cadence of her screams began to subside. He waved his arm, snuffing out all of the lanterns in the hallway to blanket them in pitch-black. "You should be sleeping when it's this dark."

Erza defiantly snarled through the torment as he readied a massive, pulsing ball of energy. But just before he could unleash it on the defenseless young woman, he was distracted by a light, rapidly growing in intensity from the holes in the upper floors. He barely managed to dart away from the fiery meteor, nearly causing that level to crumble as well, and lost his grasp on the redhead in the process.

"Natsu..." she said weakly, not knowing how she should feel over his arrival. She knew what he was capable of regularly, but he'd visibly also been through serious tribulation.

"Sorry, Erza, but I'm stealing your thunder," Natsu said to the older girl. His jubilation after defeating the Iron Dragon Slayer had become a stony expression of virulence as he studied the ragged Wizard Saint. "So you're Jose, huh? You look like you got a Jupiter Cannon turned on you."

Jose smirked at his indignation. "And you've come here to finish what your friends started? Just because you got through Gajeel doesn't mean you can expect the same against me. Take a look at how the other fairies have fared," he said, giving Natsu the chance to turn his head.

He knew Gray and the Strauss siblings were there from their scents, but still, the actual sight of their crumpled bodies caused his stomach to drop. "Lisanna..." his best friend's name escaped his lips. He listened in for their heartbeats, finding them all irregularly slow, but at least there. Knowing that much, he looked back at Jose, his fury at a boiling point as he lit up again. "You're _through_!"

"Oh?" the man cocked his head. "You still want to face me head-on? Well far be it from me to keep you waiting!" He pointed his palm at Natsu, firing off several bursts that he managed to weave through on his way to tear his head off. Just as he pulled his burning fist back, Jose smirked as his abominable eye flashed. "Ouroboros!"

The Fire Dragon Slayer's body was caught in a single glowing chain, extending from the floor to the ceiling. It pulled him in opposite directions as it constricted against his bruised bones, eliciting choked roars of misery as it entangled his neck. The feeling that everything was about to give flared dangerously close, until the critical links were severed with unearthly precision.

"Good shot, Sagittarius!" Lucy applauded as she, Happy, and her Celestial Spirit finally made it down the stairs. "Are you okay, Natsu?"

"Yeah, I'm good, thanks," he said, but clearly meant the opposite as he rubbed this throat. "Stay back. I've got this."

Lucy looked beside her, spotting the forms of Gray, Mira, Lisanna, Elfman, and strangely, the girl that had captured her in the first place. Clasping her hand over her mouth, she recognized them as victims of Jose's conspiracy with her father. She felt at fault for their injuries, and she began to feel the tears welling up, right before a paw was placed on her ankle.

"Don't cry, Lucy," Happy whispered, even though he was having trouble with that himself. "It'll be okay."

The blonde girl nodded. She needed to be strong for her friends, for what she was about to do.

Erza, too spent to get off her knees, immediately sensed her intentions. She reached out for her hand, holding on to Lucy as she walked by. "Don't do this," she pleaded.

"Leave her," a new voice called out. She turned her head, spotting Loke leaning against the stairway. He'd told the others to go on without him, that Natsu needed them there and he'd catch up eventually. "Don't keep her from what she feels she has to do."

Lucy gulped as she nodded at him. With a last reassuring squeeze, she was released by the redhead, even as Erza and Happy desperately wished for her to stop.

Natsu staggered in front of her without taking his glare off Jose, shielding her in case he went for the underhanded move. "I told you to -"

"It's fine," she said, gingerly placing her hand on his shoulder. "I'm what he needs. This whole thing is because of me. He's not going to hurt me." Giving in to her determination, Natsu allowed her to pass him, and walk just a few feet away from the Wizard Saint. "Okay, Jose," she began, with an inspiring amount of nerve. "You let my friends go, and I'll let you walk away from this."

The man gave her an amused grin. "I'm supposed to take the threat of a novice seriously?"

"You are," Lucy smirked nervously, but retained her edge. "You're not fooling anyone. We can all see you don't have much left." She motioned with her head, where Sagittarius had his bow bent back, a quartet of arrows trained on Jose. "In your condition, even a novice at full power like me might be able to take you out. I also doubt you've got the means to finish us off all at once, so you'd have to start with the biggest threat. Again, that's me. So it's all or nothing. No one else gets hurt. Or, you kill me to get to everyone else."

"I know what you're trying to do," he said, licking his painted lips. "You think just because I agreed to your father's request to bring you to him, you can leverage your life for Fairy Tail's. But why don't you take a moment to gain some perspective? The Magic Council will never pardon me for what I've done here. My options now are to accept their incarceration, or go on the run and find a Dark Guild to join. Do you understand that everything else is pointless?

"Heartfilia's mission was never of significance to me; it was merely pretense. My wizards wouldn't follow me into war if they didn't believe there wasn't some sort of official guild business involved, so I went along with your daddy's plan. But make no mistake, little girl. The only thing that's mattered this whole time, is for it to be written that Fairy Tail died at the hands of Phantom Lord!"

If Erza could've pounded the floor, she would've. This was the truth she'd discerned earlier, and judging by Lucy's paralyzed face, the blonde now understood whatever sense of security she had was dreadfully wrong. She was in just as much peril as the rest of their guild. "Get out of there, Lucy!" she commanded.

"So, do you still want to try your mettle against me?" Jose challenged, his hand collecting a swirl of violet energy. "Dead Wave!"

Lucy felt herself shoved to the ground by a diving Natsu, regaining her composure when she realized the beam wasn't meant for either of them. "Sagittarius!" she screamed as she found out his real target.

"Milady!" the archer responded stoutly, releasing his arrows just as he was struck by the beam. He cried out, evaporating into sparkles as he fell to the floor, but his noble stand hadn't been for naught. While three of his bolts had been eroded by Jose's attack, one had managed to slip through, burying itself into his side.

He stared down at the shot sticking out of his skin. The piercing pain hit him a moment later, bellowing frantically as he tried to extract it with his hands.

The delay was enough for Lucy's rage to hotwire her into action. Enabled by her spirit's sacrifice, she picked herself up, blitzed at Jose with reckless abandon, and with the offensive power Natsu had praised before, connected with a leaping kick to the face.

The witnesses were in awe at the blonde's outburst. Prior injuries be damned, Lucy just put a Guild Master, a Wizard Saint, on his back. "That was _awesome_," the wide-eyed Happy expressed the cumulative thought.

Jose was the sole person to believe otherwise. He sat up with a howl, climbing to his feet while removing the arrow with a splat of blood. Words wouldn't suffice his seething; his evil glare conveyed everything he felt. He put his red-stained hand out, an apt metaphor of the sinful ambition he'd sworn to see through. "Perish..." he uttered - but was never able to cast another spell.

"No, I don't believe we will," the voice that had steered his contempt said from within the darkness. Everyone turned their heads in disbelief, but instead of the short, balding senior they'd expected, it was a heavily-cloaked individual that stepped into the light.

"Mystogan!" Jose roared, aiming his building magic at the S-Class mage. "Your illusions won't affect my eyes! You'll be the first to to die for your impudence!"

"Illusions?" Mystogan asked, a hint of toying in his tone. "Oh, I'm not trying to deceive you. This is no act of smoke and mirrors. What you see is what you get."

With that, the man they'd anticipated slowly emerged from the shadows. The mood flip was cemented in that instant, as the conscious Fairy Tail members were given the strength to rise to their feet. Their enemy, skin ghostly-white from bloodloss and shock, reeled at the sight. "This is no mirage, Jose," Makarov confirmed, his expression pure steel. "I'm here, to reap what you've sewn."

"But.." the Darkness Wizard choked, "you should've died...!"

"I should've," the diminutive elder nodded, his expression remaining as somber as ever. "If my children hadn't rushed me to the care of an old friend, I'd be awaiting my funeral. But she helped stave off the effects of your underling's spell, long enough for Mystogan to track down and restore my magic. I must say, your hubris is almost as grand as your strength, Jose. If you would've chosen to kill me when you had me in your grasp, this story might've had a much different outcome. Perhaps you would've won, or perhaps you would've fallen to the resilience of my young wizards. However, because you left me time to suffer, you allowed this possibility to unfold, where I could return to demonstrate _my_ wrath, and _my_ pride, as Fairy Tail's Guild Master."

It had been decades since Jose had been afraid. The feeling was so alien to him, it took a moment for it to register. How could it have come to this? Everything had been going his way. Yes, Gajeel and the Element Four had failed, but he was efficiently cleaning their messes. But now it was Makarov, back from the dead, to appoint himself his challenger. Makarov, the man behind the derailment of his guild's fortunes. The man he would desecrate legacy and convention to kill.

"I'll never lose to you, Makarov!" he roared, preparing the most fatal technique in his arsenal. All of his rival guild's presence would be met with oblivion, and their leader, the first domino to fall in sequence. "Geneva Break!"

"You've already lost, Jose!" he responded, growing into a massive, musclebound titan with glowing white eyes. His echoing voice was so deep, his frame so terrifying, that Jose lost his spell's charge, wholly petrified. "You lost the second your hatred and envy consumed your existence. Instead of gracefully accepting when your time as the top guild in the land passed, you refused to accept the change as the world saw it.

"And when you tried to realize your nihilistic fantasies, and hurt my children, you sealed your own fate," Makarov decreed, putting his great hands together. A blinding ball of light was materialized, purging the darkness Jose invoked. "You will not receive any kindness the Council might've granted. Instead, _this_ is the judgment you will answer to, one of the three legendary Fairy Magics! Fairy Law!"

At that moment, all of Magnolia experienced an intense, shining burst. The unaware citizens thought little of its significance, but the Fairy Tail wizards understood. The war was over. They had won.

When the light receded, every pair of eyes, including those that opened thanks to the spell, saw their sole enemy. Jose, despite having tried to shield himself with his arms, was a quivering mess. His pupils were bulged, mouth pulled back in a despaired grimace, and most noteworthy of all, his body completely wiped of color. 'Devastation' was not a worthwhile description of what the man had experienced.

Makarov, reverted to his true stature, smiled out to his children. "Well, there is much we need to discuss about what has happened here today. I want to hear all about your parts in how we trounced Phantom Lord - but first thing's first," he stated, his grin turning mischievous. "We need to deal with our wounded! Someone call the hospital and tell them to send its entire staff of saucy nurses!"

**- 0 -**

Lucy stared daggers at the back of the man in the pristine suit. Some would've taken his refusal to turn to her when she entered his office, choosing to instead peer out the window, as a sign of guilt over his betrayal. But she was all too familiar with this scene to know they were still following the same script.

"I'm happy that you've returned home," her father said, speaking with the minimal affection he held for his servants. He finally looked over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowing when he gazed upon his daughter for the first time in a month. "I thought I told Supetto to ready a dress for you."

"She did," Lucy said edgily. "I didn't think it was necessary to change."

"Did she tell you exactly why I needed you to be presentable?" Jude scowled. "Once I received the letter about your arrival, I invited some very important guests over for dinner. It is in your best interest to ready yourself -"

"_My_ best interest?" Lucy repeated in disbelief. "So you invite some corporate friend of yours, intending for me to marry his son for some kind of business partnership, and you're thinking about _my_ best interest?"

"Mind your tongue," Jude responded venomously. "I will not stand for that tone of voice."

"Yeah? Well I can barely stand looking at you right now, so I guess we're both just gonna have to deal," Lucy shot back with even more disdain. Her father reeled at her ferocity.

It had been a week since the war with Phantom Lord. After the battle, the entirety of Fairy Tail regrouped on the cliff, and as fatigued as they were, cheered for one another when their complete victory sank in. After the brief celebration, Lucy, with tears streaming down her face, explained to them all her heritage, the catalyst Jose had used to incite his warped ploy for revenge.

She sobbed as she apologized for bringing such pain and destruction to their wonderful guild. She couldn't contain her emotions for never saying who she really was, and having gotten them involved in her family problems as a result. She told them she'd understand if they wanted her excommunicated from Fairy Tail in penitence, but her friends and the Master would have none of it. As far as they were concerned, she was theirs, and they were hers. It was that simple.

And because of their acceptance, she needed resolution with her father.

"What got into your head to think that you needed to hire a guild to bring me back here?" she started. "We've never had the best relationship, I know that, but I never imagined that we were that far apart. You knew I was at Fairy Tail, and you couldn't come talk to me on your own. Am I not even worth that much effort to you?"

"There were other matters I needed to take care of," Jude growled. "I certainly couldn't hire a guild to accomplish that for me."

"So much caring for the only family you've got left," Lucy smirked sardonically, before her expression turned serious. "You know, I hated it when people called me 'Lucky' Lucy of the Heartfilia family, because I never felt lucky at all living here - not since Mom died." The mention of her late mother caused Jude's tightened faced to twitch. "I was a kid, so of course I took some things for granted, but for the most part I was right. It wasn't until I got _this_ that I understood what a home is really supposed to be like."

She held up her right hand, bearing her pink guild mark. Whatever berating Jude was about to commence caught in his throat, as his door was opened once more to allow an entire mob into the office. Natsu, Loke, Happy, Lisanna, Mira, Erza, Cana, Gray, Elfman, Levy, Jet, and Droy walked in, standing behind her in an insurmountable display of unity.

"From the moment I walked into Fairy Tail, these guys accepted me as family," she continued, softer now that she had twelve hardened expressions at her back. "They've been nothing but kind to me, and for you to have hurt them the way you did, it'll be a long time before I can forgive you for that. But, I know you're not heartless. Mom fell in love with you, and that's all the proof I need. Some day, I'd like for you to come up to me, not as Jude Heartfilia the businessman, but as Jude Heartfilia, the man who loved Layla, the man who was my father, and make amends for what you've done. Until that day comes, though, I don't want you anywhere near me or my friends, understand?

"So for now, this is goodbye. I should've done this in the first place instead of running away, and I'm sorry. If I had, we could've avoided this whole ordeal. But this is where we are now, and when you can sincerely apologize to us, you know where I'll be. When you look inside and find the old you, then you can come see the new me: Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail."

Jude was reminded of Layla when his daughter turned, prompting her friends to begin leaving the room. He'd always noticed the striking resemblance, but he'd never taken the time to understand she had the same proud, free spirit as her mother. He never would've wanted to cage Layla's sense of soaring, and it finally dawned on him that that's what he'd done to his girl her entire life.

As she walked out, he knew he had much soul-searching to do before he could start following.

But Lucy, she was done with searching for the time being. She hadn't known what she was getting herself into when she originally joined the guild she'd most enjoyed reading about, but her new family had shown her fast. Adventure and mystery. Helping others. Learning and teaching. Always having somewhere to call home, with amazing, loving friends to surround herself with. That was what it meant to be a Fairy Tail wizard.

* * *

><p><em>Now, this was a journey. Phantom Lord, I gave you the best of me, so thank you for being such a worthy adversary. But before we get to the mushy part of the speech, let's break down the action a little.<em>

_Since we never saw much of Mystogan' and Aria's movesets, I turned to Pokemon for inspiration. I was able to pluck out a variety of attacks that I thought fit well for both guys, and I was pleased with the end result. I hope I was able to get you too absorbed in the fight to figure out the ending, which was half the reason I went with this match-up in the first place (the other half? More Mystogan, of course)._

_The fight with Gajeel, I wanna call that my favorite battle that I've written for this story. I just found a chemistry with him and Natsu that I thought translated into a great showdown. The real surprise to me was how easy it was to incorporate Loke. I needed to make up for not giving him a fight scene before, so I gave him a piece of Gajeel. He just fit right in and kept the momentum going, and I personally thought he broke out in a big way there. The Hardlight Magic was supposed to be Green Lantern-esque, and the Destructo Disk seemed to match what I was doing, so I thought why not?_

_Back to Natsu. He ruled, didn't he? I'm really proud of all the speeches everyone here gave, but Natsu's was my favorite. His finishing move came from the Guren's signature attack in Code Geass, if that sounded familiar. And Gajeel, I can't say I liked how ruthless he was in canon with Lucy. Apart from my favorite character being kicked around like that being hard to watch, it just didn't make sense that he'd rough her up so much with how vital she was to their plan. So, I made him a little more sympathetic, as a dude just looking for someone to challenge him. I think it'll make his inevitable introduction to the guild a little smoother._

_And, the main event with Jose. I knew I couldn't pull any punches here, so Mira and Erza went all out with what they had left. Mira I wanted to showcase especially __since she was the first out of the fight. I originally wasn't planning on first utilizing the Purgatory Armor here, but I just thought it'd was too good a shot to pass up. For Jose, I made a few references to his voice actor and his roles on Fullmetal Alchemist, and I hope the fans caught those. And I knew Lucy had to get in that infamous kick of hers, even if it wasn't a low-blow._

_So, all that said, I'm calling this the top of my game. I came into this story telling myself I needed to get to Phantom Lord, and I reached my goal. It's extremely satisfying that I was able to make it and continuously produce chapter after chapter that I can look back on and be proud of, and that my readers enjoyed. And finally, after taking the last two chapters off, Sidestories is finally being updated, so be sure to check that out, too! So I'm sorry this turned out so long, but thank you for reading all the way through, I do hope you enjoyed! As always, I love and appreciate reviews, so if you leave me one for this chapter, I'd love you even more for it!_


	15. Loke Arc - Part 1

_So moving on from the biggest angle so far, we delve into the Loke arc. We're only looking at two chapters for this one, and I hope you're still ready to laugh and feel with me! Read on and enjoy!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 15<br>- Do You Find This... Distracting? -**

It had been two weeks since the epic war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord. During the first seven days, the Magic Council had conducted an extensive investigation into the matter. They brought in every involved wizard from both sides for an interrogation, and ultimately concluded that the guild out of Oak Town had been the responsible party, clearing the Magnolian organization of any wrong-doing.

Jose, in his shellshocked state after witnessing the power of Fairy Law, was the biggest reason for why the inquiry took as long as it did. Three days had passed before he was able to communicate coherently, and even then he refused to answer any questions. The Council went to great lengths to document his instigating side of the story, having to venture into blurred territory with magic thought to have been lost to extract the truth from him.

Probing into his mind lead to a sentencing of life in captivity. The darkness in his heart was too much of a danger to the kingdom, so he would likely never be granted parole. With that verdict, also came the one that Phantom Lord would be disbanded as an active guild. For the role they played in the war, Gajeel, Aria, Sol, and Totomaru would also spend time behind bars, but for varying lengths of time depending on the severity of their crimes.

Juvia, however, was absolved completely thanks to the testimony of Fairy Tail. They hadn't gotten the opportunity to thank her personally for trying to help them, as she was escorted from Era apart from them, but had left them a short note. In it she'd apologized for the harm her guild had caused, and expressed her gratitude for her freedom.

The next seven days featured Lucy's return to the Heartfilia estate, telling off her father for his actions with the support of her new family. Upon settling back into Magnolia, they cleared the ruins of their former headquarters, and designed the blueprints for an even bigger, better guild hall as Makarov had promised. The foundation was laid out, but that was as far as the reconstruction got.

The Fairy Tail wizards really needed some time to relax.

Everyone had their own vacationing plans, but Mira's idea was to round up her closest friends and head up to the famous resort village, Hosenka. Thanks to a prior advertising shoot she did that lead to these particular hot springs becoming the most popular in town, she was able to get the whole mob in, free of charge.

"I'm vouching for all of you here, so don't do anything stupid," she reminded them at the entrance with a smile, even though the outline of her Satan Soul practically flickered beside her. "Now, girls on the left, boys on the right."

As excited as Lucy was for the evening, she couldn't help but feel disappointed that a certain auburn-haired wizard hadn't come along with the group. "So Loke didn't show up, after all," she whispered to herself, as they passed through the cloth panels to the changing rooms. He'd also been invited, but his reply had been a tentative 'maybe'. She'd been hoping he'd arrive later in the day after he hadn't been on the same train as them, but it was a little late to be holding on to that hope now.

Immediately, Erza casually shrugged off the robes the mages were given at the village's entrance. None of the other girls thought anything of it, but Lucy's eyes flew wide open, and her face flushed as she took in the redhead's beautiful curves. At that moment, she decided she wouldn't mind another sleepover at the girls' dormitories, and especially wouldn't mind another mix-up with Erza's beds.

Mira noticed the little floating hearts emanating from her, grinning as she sneaked up behind her fellow S-Class Wizard to lock her arms around her waist. "Isn't Erza gorgeous, Lucy?" she asked suggestively as her victim frowned at her grip. "I love how she isn't shy."

"I don't see why I should be, I'm among friends," Erza countered as she freed herself. "But posing for a magazine for all to stare, now I don't believe I could be so bold for that."

"Oh? But what about all those scanty armors of yours? I just know a shoot of you in them would be just fabulous!" Mira said with a smirk, before setting her sights on the blonde. "Speaking of which, Lucy, would you like to see what Sorcerer Weekly offered me 5 million Jewel to show off?"

Before the Celestial Wizard could reply, Mira let her robes puddle at her feet. Again, Lucy was entranced by the exhibition in front of her. No amount of money could ever be worth the sheer display of Fairy Tail's strongest women - and she was just being allowed to bask in this vision!

"Only 5 million?" Erza asked with just the tiniest hint of smugness. "I was offered 6 million. I refused, of course."

"I'd be very upset if you'd accepted," Mira said, her smile turning dark, "but not because of the money. I could never have anyone outside of myself and our Fairy Hills girls see you in all your glory like this, Erza, and I know you must feel the same about me."

The redhead nodded in agreement. "Your best should always be reserved for your rival."

"Get a room, you two," Cana rolled her eyes as she undressed.

Lucy had no idea how she hadn't fainted from swooning yet. The addition of the brunette subtracting her garb caused her blush to nearly overload. From her first day, she'd found Cana to exude every bit of sexiness, in persona and body, as the white-haired girl who was actually crowned for it by her employer. Seeing her best friend in the guild with nothing left to the imagination only validated that standing. Sorcerer Weekly were complete fools to not want to feature her.

"The three of you are goddesses," she said resolutely as Cana, Mira and Erza stood together to bicker the card mage's comment. "How else could you be _that_ perfect?"

"They've already got all the boys at their feet, so don't you go falling for them, too," Lisanna smiled playfully at her as she slipped out of her clothes as well. Again, Lucy was transfixed by the pure loveliness. While she didn't have quite the same bountiful emphasis as their seniors, she was just as much a vision of the heavens as the rest. "Anyway, looks like it's your turn."

The blonde snapped out of her reverie with the prompt, finding the young women she'd been smitten with now waiting for her to return the favor. "Uh, right," she said as she disrobed, eliciting gasps from her friends.

"Wow!" Lisanna clamored delightedly. "You're so pretty, Lucy!"

"Yes, absolutely stunning," Erza affirmed with an unabashed starry sheen in her eyes, and her cheeks taking on a similar color as her locks.

Mira came up and hugged from her behind, resting her chin on the Celestial Wizard's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Erza, but I think I'm going to have to take Lucy into that room with me instead," she grinned, enjoying the girl trying not to squirm as she brushed her stomach with her fingertips.

"Not a chance," Cana said, yanking Lucy away from the white-haired vixen, and into a tight embrace of her own. "I saw her before any of you," she whispered seductively, lowering her head so her luscious lips were just inches away from Lucy's, "and blonde is my favorite flavor, so I should have first taste."

Lucy was almost lost enough in Cana's warmth, and her alluring chocolate irises, to allow the situation to play out however she wanted. But, before she could indulge in the sapphic resonance of the moment, she caught sight of Levy. The petite girl stood by herself on the other side of the room, holding onto the folds of her robe with a despondent expression. Fighting the temptation, Lucy stepped back, Cana letting her go with a pouting smile.

"Sorry, ladies," she apologized brightly as she strode over to the blue-haired girl, taking her by the hands. "You're all beautiful, but I've been set on Levy for awhile now," she said, winking at her surprised captive. "I'm glad we saved the best for last, but I can't take any more teasing. Take it off!"

After the realization of what she was doing hit her, Levy smiled appreciatively. She'd always been more than a little self-conscious, since her slender figure didn't reflect the developed archetype of the rest of the Fairy Tail sisterhood. She didn't often bathe with them for this reason, but Lucy's coquettish but genuine encouragement did indeed boost her spirits. Putting on a smoldering smile despite her cute blush, she slowly pulled at the robe's belt, drawing cheers and whistles from her audience. She couldn't help but laugh at their response, finally partaking in the lighthearted atmosphere as they grabbed their towels and stepped out onto the hot spring's trail.

**- 0 -**

"Man, this is nice," Natsu grinned with utmost satisfaction, leaning back against the edge of the boys' spring. "I hope the people that run this place would be okay with me staying the night here, 'cause I don't plan on leaving."

"Aye," Happy purred from beside him, looking just as pleased.

"No joke," Gray nodded along. It was rare that he agreed with Natsu, but his body's fixed cold temperature reacted with the warm water in such a way that made him feel completely at peace (of course, this being the perfect environment for his habitual nudity was also a factor). "Not even the Rune Knights could get me out of here tonight."

"Don't forget about what Mira said about doing anything stupid," Elfman intoned in reminder, but his glower softened as he sunk in lower. "But, if we can keep the officials out of it, I think we'll be fine."

Jet and Droy were also quite taken with the springs, but they refrained from getting too comfortable. They had a plan that needed surgical execution, and the first step had the thinnest margin of error of all.

The boys soaked blissfully in silence for a few minutes before the Shadow Gear mates nodded towards each other. "You know what would make this even better?" Jet began conversationally. "Some drinks."

"Yeah, drinks make everything better," Droy replied accordingly.

Elfman, who was being careful to keep his spiky hair from being matted down by the water, nodded with a grunt. "That would be perfect," he concurred.

The bait had been caught, but naturally, there would be some resistance. "There's a bar in the lobby, but does this place let us bring alcohol out into the springs?" Gray wondered.

"Cana just got the girls four wine bottles," Happy said, ears twitching as he picked up their chattering on the other side of the dividing rock wall. "The others will probably only get one of those to share."

Natsu's confirmation lead Droy and Jet to grin over at Elfman. "So with that settled, isn't it the duty of a real man to buy the first round?" they floated the question in unison.

The middle Strauss sibling sat up straight at the key words used. He frowned over at the pair he often berated for not looking to improve their strength. He'd be damned if he'd let either of them be the one to step up and buy drinks for them, for it was indeed a responsibility that required the broad shoulders of a real man. "I'll be right back," he declared as he rose out of the pool, wrapping the towel that was all-too small around his waist.

Jet and Droy contained their snickering for about a minute after he disappeared back into their changing room. Their gamble had paid off. When the others weren't noticing, Jet had raced inside and snatched Elfman's robe, stuffing it in a nondescript shrub Droy had sprouted at the corners of the spring boundary. They had been betting on Elfman being too prideful to return empty-handed, so he would either have to take the time to thoroughly dry off and change into his regular clothes, or head to the bar in just the towel and cause a scene. Whatever the case, now with the big brother out of the way, this was their opportunity.

"So, you guys wanna try to sneak a peek at the girls?" they asked with a mischievous glint in their eyes.

Gray and Happy sighed at their transparency, while Natsu looked at them, perplexed. "Why would we wanna do that?"

The Shadow Gear members turned to each other with concerned expressions. They'd failed to take Natsu's obliviousness into account. Getting him on board would be a delicate matter.

"To... mess with them?" Jet proposed carefully.

"They'd be pretty mad if we did it, right?" Droy elaborated. "So, that means we _should_ do it... right?"

Natsu's grin spread deviously as the scenario gained traction in his head. He could just imagine the frightened shrieks Lucy and Levy would be letting out, and Erza, Cana and Mira would surely try to fight him, for nothing else other than to defend the _others'_ modesty. It was a win-win if he'd ever heard one. "Yeah, let's do it!"

"You idiots have to be insane," Gray snarled at them. "Are you forgetting just who it is that you're trying to perv out on?"

The ice mage's realistic take brought their fantasy crashing to the ground. While he was mostly referring to the deathblows awaiting them from Titania, the She-Devil, and Fairy Tail's best drinker, it served to bring personal emotions to the forefront. Droy and Jet hadn't considered how Levy could view them for their voyeurism. Being stuck in the friend zone was a poor fate, but not as much as losing their petite leader altogether.

And Natsu, for some reason he couldn't quite ascertain, had his brashness stalled by the thought of seeing Lisanna... like that. He wasn't bothered by any of the other girls' state of undress, and it wasn't like he minded her own, exactly... Or did he? Yes, she was his best friend, but skin wasn't supposed to be a big deal. So what was with this drastic change of heart? Why did he feel so meek all of a sudden?

All he knew for sure was that, at this moment in time, and especially with other spectators, he didn't want to do it.

They sat in embarrassment until Elfman returned with a tray of drinks shortly after (apparently he'd opted to buy them in the towel, and hadn't faced any issues doing so). The Shadow Gear boys gluttonously downed theirs to try to cleanse their consciousness, while the rest went for the savoring route.

"Any of you guys know why Loke didn't come with us?" Happy, the lone individual not to receive a glass, inquired before they lost coherence like Jet and Droy. "He didn't mention being sick or something, did he?"

They all shook their heads. "When you told me what happened to him up in The Giant, I asked him if he was alright," Gray said. "He just said he was fine, but I wasn't sure I believed him. He hasn't seemed to have much energy lately."

"Come to think of it, he hasn't been around much to help out with rebuilding the guild," Elfman recalled. "I figured he was just out skirt-chasing instead of working hard like a man, but if there's actually something wrong with him..."

"He's definitely keeping something from us," Natsu said with a frown. "We all knew Loke was powerful, but for a second there, he had an S-Class Wizard at full strength on the ropes. He busted out this incredible magic, but then he collapsed, and it looked like it was more than just running on empty."

The four exchanged concerned looks over Loke's well-being. The signs of a serious issue were there, but with the Magic Council's investigation, and starting the new guild hall, they had been too preoccupied to really notice. Natsu and Happy had been there for his lowest, and they felt guilty that they'd ignored the distress of their friend who'd been instrumental in the defeat of Gajeel. Whenever they'd next see him, they'd be sure to get an honest answer out of him.

**- 0 -**

Upon returning to the changing rooms, Lucy found a slip of paper sticking out of her robe's pocket. It directed her to meet the sender at a small restaurant in half an hour, by herself. When she and the girls made their way to the inn, she lamely excused herself by saying she wanted to take a walk around town, and declined their offers to come along. Cana, in her alcohol-sharpened wisdom, seemed to have caught on that she was going to be meeting someone, as she grinned and quelled the others to leave the blonde to her devices.

"So why all the secrecy, Loke?" she asked once she arrived at the designated location.

The boy in the green jacket smiled softly at her. "Sneaking around is pretty fun, don't you think?" he responded quietly, with no actual hint of mirth in his tone.

"I hope you're not thinking of this as some kind of date," she said with a grin, despite feeling somewhat disconcerted. "I already told you, if you wanna ask me out, you have to have my spirits' approval."

Loke turned away from her at that moment, stepping into the restaurant and leaving Lucy to follow him in - uncharacteristic of someone who was supposed to be a gentlemanly playboy. He let her take her seat at the counter first, then occupied the stool one over from hers. What was he being so distant for?

Lucy, being the one who was requested to come out, gave him the chance to initiate whatever he wanted to talk about. The abstinent drinker ordered a fruity beverage, while Loke half-heartedly said he'd take the same. Odd, because he seemed like he could use something a little stronger than regular punch.

When he still hadn't spoken outside of their order by the time they were served, she took it upon herself to break the enervating silence. "Are you okay?"

A sigh was not what she'd been hoping to hear. "You know, when I first heard you were a Celestial Wizard, I never thought we would've gotten as close as we have," he began.

It wasn't an answer, but she knew he was going somewhere with this. "And why is that, exactly? What's with your aversion towards Celestial Wizards?" she prodded, as she expected he wanted.

Loke stared down at his glass for a second. "It's a long story."

"We've got time."

He shook his head, ever so slightly, that she didn't make much of it as a sign of disagreement. "It's not what you think it is. Everyone always figures it was either a crazy ex-girlfriend, or some tragic tale of lost love. Truth is, it had nothing to do with that. It wasn't that kind of relationship."

Lucy appeared confused by what he meant, but he knew she was a very clever young lady. He mentally slapped himself for revealing what he had so far. She was going to figure it out.

He stood up from his chair, taking a single step to wrap his arms around Lucy. He hated himself for what he was about to do next, but now, what did he have to lose? "The truth is, I don't _have_ time. I don't have much longer to live."

She froze in his hold. For a moment, she couldn't react as his words chilled throughout her whole body. Loke letting her go caused her to regain control, as she bore into his sunglasses with wide, disbelieving eyes. "...What?" she whispered hollowly. "What do you mean...?"

The boy was surprised to find he loathed himself now even more than a minute ago. What did he have to lose? Her smile, that's what.

He'd burdened her for however long he had left. Despite his efforts to keep her at arm's length, they'd become friends. Yes, he understood that she, along with the rest of Fairy Tail, were going to mourn him regardless. But they'd developed a rapport that he'd tried to avoid, and she would be hurt all the more for it. And now, with her on the verge of discovering who he really was, with her being the most loving Celestial Wizard he'd encountered, she would be utterly devastated.

There was one thing left he could do. She would be furious at him, but at the very least, she would be able to find joy in other avenues. If he could see her smiling again, even from afar, that would be enough.

Lucy's shock dissipated when Loke began to chuckle. It became a full-out laugh shortly after, and she realized what he'd been saying.

"Oh, man, you totally bought that!" he said with a smirk, wiping a tear under his shades. "I thought you were smarter than that, Lucy! Only the most gullible chicks ever fall for that line, and then it's straight to the bedroom from there!"

Lucy slapped him. Hard. Loke stumbled back against the counter, tipping over his untouched drink.

"You think that's funny?!" she demanded as she trembled, her face going red, Loke's left cheek starting to do the same. "After what we just went through against Phantom Lord, you wanna make jokes about dying? We nearly lost Master Makarov! How could you be so insensitive?"

He couldn't meet her eyes as he gingerly held where he'd been struck.

"That was a really horrible thing to say," she continued, her seething vitriol giving way to tranquil rage. "You know, I'd been hoping that you would've been here earlier, so all of us could hang out and have fun together. If that's the kind of crap you were gonna pull, though, then you shouldn't have even showed up."

With that, Lucy stormed out of the restaurant with no mind for anything other than getting back to the inn. Loke could take care of paying for her drink and cleaning it up - it was the least he could do for what just transpired.

The other girls immediately picked up on her anger, but she made it clear to them that she wasn't going to entertain any questions on the matter. When it came time to turn in, Cana and Erza, who had argued over who'd be sharing the bed with Lucy without resolution, agreed Levy should be the one to sleep with her. However, even she was unable to convince Lucy to open up, tenderly giving her a pat on the back before turning the other way herself.

Lucy was thankful for their efforts to reach her, she really was. This was just something she'd rather not involve anyone else with. Why upset them, too, over such a twisted joke? She'd prefer to just vent away her frustrations in her sleep.

**- 0 -**

The next day back at the rebuilding grounds, the contingent of Fairy Tail wizards all resumed working diligently, making excellent strides towards completion. The labor, however, didn't do much to take Lucy's mind off the incident with Loke the previous night. The girls and boys had mostly kept her entertained or otherwise distracted on the way back, but the thought remained ever looming. The auburn-haired boy hadn't been on the same train ride; no one else had even seen him in Hosenka, making it easy to keep the story to herself.

As she'd thought, she wasn't mad any longer come morning. Rather, she wanted to understand him, to decipher the subtext of his words. What he'd said about his time with a Celestial Wizard, and why he'd chosen to deflect from it with such a tasteless pick-up line. If it wasn't a romantic relationship that caused him to be so wary of her brand of mages, then what kind of relationship was it?

Fortunately, Loke had yet to appear to do his part for the new guild hall, and his disappearing act was the hot topic around the break circle. That meant Lucy could ask about him freely, without cluing Erza and the others off about who she'd met last night.

"If he's not feeling well, then he should just let us know," Cana said after the boys' offered their speculation, the girls nodding along. "I mean, he's got one of my contact cards, or he could use a lacrima."

"How many of us are actually honest when we're not feeling a hundred percent, though?" Natsu asked in one of his more profound moments. No one at the table had a counterpoint for what he was saying. Fairy Tail members were always strong for their comrades, even when they weren't.

This was as good a time as any to sneak in one of her questions. "How long has Loke been here at the guild for?" Lucy asked. He was never mentioned in any of their recollections from when they were all preteens, so his tenure had to be significantly shorter.

"Around a year and a half," Gray replied. "He just strutted in one day, got his guild stamp from Gramps, and then tried to hit on Mira right after."

"If he hadn't looked over at all the other girls while he was telling me how my shoots were the reason he joined," Mirajane said with an incorrigible smirk, "he might've actually gotten somewhere other than the hospital."

"Did he say where he came from? Ever mention a family?" Lucy continued. "Maybe he went off to visit some relatives?" she added, to keep them off her trail.

"Loke could go on for days about himself, but he gets really quiet when you ask about personal stuff like that," Happy supplied. "He's said he's originally from a different kingdom, but that's pretty much all we know."

By the end of their lunch, Lucy only felt slightly closer to unraveling the mystery of Loke. There was an answer, and she knew it was right there for her to take. The details she'd gotten from her friends helped sort out some of the jumble of her brainstorming, but she still hadn't broken through to the truth. Fortunately, she had someone outside of the situation she could consult.

"Open, Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!" she said. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed back in her apartment, after everyone returned home from the construction site. She'd just come out of the shower, and was comfortably in her sleepwear - ready for the uncomfortable feeling she was about to experience for prying in such a way.

Crux appeared, levitating over the open area of her floor, eyes shut as usual. "Yes, Princess?" he asked after a snort.

"Don't tell me Virgo said to call me that!" she cried. She was aware her spirits talked amongst themselves in the Celestial World, but that nickname was supposed to be exclusive to her pink-haired maid. If Crux of all people had picked it up, she shuddered to think of the ways Taurus and Aquarius might respond to it. "Anyway, I was hoping you could give me some info on Loke."

The cross being bristled at the request. "Because of the privacy laws that extend into our realm, there are certain things I must keep confidential regarding questions of that nature."

Lucy tapped her chin. She was relieved it wasn't that easy for her or anyone else to gain access to someone else's personal details, but now she had to figure out how to possibly circumvent the restrictions. "Alright. Could you tell me what Celestial Wizards Loke's known, other than me?"

It appeared that she'd found a question within application, as Crux drifted into a quick slumber. When he awoke with a start, he spoke a single name, slowly, as if he knew he was divulging something he shouldn't. "He was once acquainted with Karen Lilica."

She raised her eyebrows at that. Karen Lilica was a figure Lucy was quite familiar with. She'd been a beautiful, renowned Celestial Wizard of the Blue Pegasus guild, who was repeatedly featured in Sorcerer Weekly. Because they used the same style of magic, she'd had a fascination with Karen, even though the woman's arrogance easily translated off the pages of her interviews.

Lucy remembered feeling sad when the news broke of Karen's death three years ago. Blue Pegasus's Master, Bob, had released a grief-stricken statement on his loss, but he never gave an exact cause for her passing. He'd only revealed that it had occurred while she was on a job, his vagueness inciting rumors that she'd been murdered, possibly by a Dark Guild.

As she figured it'd be pointless to ask how Loke and Karen knew each other, suddenly it all seemed to fall into place. Why he was so inclined against Celestial Wizards. Why he'd never said anything about his past, besides not being from Fiore. Why he used a Holder Magic in place of a much stronger form of ethereal power. Why he'd been weakened to the point of life-threatening exhaustion by using his true capabilities.

And she realized how his lie back at the restaurant, hadn't been a lie at all.

"Crux," she shivered, knowing this would verify what she could no longer refuse, "tell me about Regulus Magic."

* * *

><p><em>After the previous saga was a heavy affair all the way through, it was fun to get away from that and write something lighthearted. Of course, after the obligatory bit of foolishness at the hot springs, we needed to get back on track with the drama! I've got something a little different in mind for the conclusion of the Loke arc, so join me next time for it!<em>

_Fanservice is its own reward, naturally, but if you're feeling grateful, I'd also be grateful for some reviews!_


	16. Loke Arc - Part 2

_Being the short arc it was, I needed something to not just fill out the Loke ending, but also have it go out with as much of a bang as possible. The result? Well, read on, and let me know what you think!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 16<br>****- The Light Born At World's End -**

Lucy urgently dashed through the forest, hoping that the glowing dot on the locator card Cana gave her wouldn't stop blinking. As soon as Crux finished explaining to her the nature of Regulus Magic, she'd taken off for Fairy Hills to ask the brunette to find Loke. Her sudden, frantic appearance had drawn a bit of a crowd at the dorms, and Lucy felt awful for not taking the time to relay what was happening, but she didn't have a moment to spare.

She'd snatched the card from Cana as soon as it was ready for her, and from there made a beeline for the train station. Fortunately, there was one last train scheduled for Wisteria, the hometown of Blue Pegasus. Unfortunately, it would be another fifteen minutes before it would depart.

Lucy, armed with a quivering Plue in her hold, stormed into the conductor's room, and demanded to leave the station as soon as possible. She quickly ran down the bullet points of the emergency, and thankfully, the man behind the operations had sympathized with the girl and her cute mascot. He blew the whistle to signify preparing the coal immediately, and shortly after, they were on their way.

Now, the blonde tore through the woods by the edge of Wisteria. Whether it was pure adrenaline, or her stamina having grown considerably, or both, her body gave no indication that she needed to slow. Not until she arrived at the jutting cliff by the roaring waterfall, to find a beautiful circular monument, and the boy she'd been looking for.

"Loke!" she called out to him, throat raspy from her hard run. She finally stopped a few feet from where he stood, taking a second to breathe before speaking again, softly this time. "Loke..."

He looked at her with a sorrowful smile, almost like he'd been expecting her. "I'm sorry you came out all this way for me," he said with his head lowered. "You really shouldn't be here for this."

"Don't," she warned him for the second consecutive night about what he was saying. "I don't know how you've managed to survive for so long out here in this world, but I'm not letting you die. If you just go back to the Celestial World, you'll be fine, right? So do it!"

Loke chuckled slightly. "I'm afraid I can't," he said, averting his eyes. "Not even someone like me, Leo the Lion, leader of the Zodiac Spirits, can escape the punishment for breaking a contract's most sacred rule. I've been cast out of the Celestial World - permanently."

The oxygen caught in Lucy's lungs at the insinuation. "Loke... what did you do?" she whispered, even though she was well aware of that rule.

"Three years ago, my Golden Key belonged to Karen Lilica," he said, gazing at the name engraved on the tombstone. "But, my contract with her came to an end... when I killed her."

**- 0 -**

_"Are you ready for our date tonight, Karen?"_

_"No, surely you must be spending the evening with me."_

_"Don't you remember the last time the two of us went out? It was magical."_

_Karen sighed as entered the Blue Pegasus guild hall. As usual for a Friday night, a whole crowd of suitors had been waiting just for her. Fellow guildmates and Wisteria citizens alike lined the lavish common room, all trying their best to earn Karen's attention for the evening. When the ritual began after her first cover shoot for Sorcerer Weekly, the Celestial Wizard had been at first amused by their behavior. It lost a portion of its charm and became another part of her routine some time after, but now, it just brought about a headache for her._

_"I've already told you, I'm seeing someone exclusively," she frowned at them as she brushed by, spotting her actual partner seated at the bar with the Master, Bob. The young man with dirty blonde hair smiled at her, raising his champagne glass invitingly._

_"He's just a boy! What could he know about treating a beautiful woman like you?" exclaimed the men who refused to give in._

_Karen smiled back at her awaiting date, having been soothed by the sight of him. "More than you could imagine," she said, mostly to herself. Turning over her shoulder, she looked at the despondent group. "Yes, it is unfair that there's only one of me, and I refuse to be shared. However, if you're still looking to be entertained on this night, I suppose I could do something to mend those poor broken hearts of yours. Open, Gate of the White Ram! Aries!"_

_In a flash of light, Karen activated one of her three Golden Keys, beckoning forth the shy and shapely Aries. Her meek expression deepened immediately as she recognized the role she'd been called to play._

_"You're such a doll!"_

_"Do you like having your horns touched?"_

_"I bet snuggling with you would feel just wonderful!"_

_"Miss Karen, please not this again!" Aries pleaded to her master as she was encircled by the mob of over-assuming men._

_"Quit whining. It's not a good look for you, honey," Karen dismissed her request with a scowl, before it became a smirk. "Now remember, all of you: play nice."_

_It was the third time in as many weeks that Bob had watched Aries be uncomfortably smothered by those rejected by Karen. He'd spoken to the cute spirit just a handful of times, but he knew she was an absolute darling, a genuine sweetheart with a great sense of modesty. He understood just how much it pained her to have to deal with those lechers for hours while Karen was out, if her facial and body language hadn't been indicative enough._

_"Karen, dear, I don't think you should be using poor Aries like that anymore," he suggested the next day when the woman sat at the bar to wait for her boyfriend. "You should treat your Celestial Spirits with a little more respect."_

_The lime-haired model scoffed. "My spirits are contracted to do whatever I tell them to do. That's the agreement we have, and there's no room for them to complain."_

_"You treat them as if they're tools," Bob sighed. "They're sentient beings, just like you and I. They deserve to be regarded as more than just devices to shield you in any fights you might get into, or from unwanted advances. You wouldn't like it very much if the situation was reversed, now would you?"_

_"But it's not," Karen growled impertinently. "Gates were created so wizards could summon spirits to and from the Celestial World. They're here to serve us, not the other way around. This is done through keys classified as Holder-Type Magic, and - correct me if I'm mistaken - those are items defined as tools."_

_The bald man in lipstick's face grew frighteningly dark. "Karen, I'm going to warn you right now," he intoned severely, "I don't want to see or hear of any more abuse towards your spirits. It is unbecoming of any person, especially for someone as prominent to the public as you, and I will not have you dirtying the good name of my guild. Have I made myself clear?"_

_Before she could spit out some kind of affirmation to appease him, her dashing young boyfriend arrived to play spoiler, alleviating the tension somewhat. He walked up to the counter, taking Karen's hand and bringing it to his lips, before nodding at Bob in acknowledgement. The couple excused themselves, Karen turning over her shoulder as her boyfriend lead them out, to exchange one last glare with their Master._

**- 0 -**

_"On your knees!" Karen ordered, smacking Aries's thigh with a heart-shaped rod. She cried out in pain, and dropped down as she held her leg, hoping she wouldn't be struck again. "If you weren't so pathetic, Bob wouldn't have any reason to be angry with me! He'd been considering promoting me to S-Class, but that old fool won't do it now, and it's all thanks to you!"_

_Aries yelped as she felt a heeled boot roughly placed on top of her head. "I'm sorry, Miss Karen! I didn't mean to cause you trouble!"_

_"Women would kill for the attention I garner!" she said, raising the rod again. "All you have to do is keep those losers occupied, so suck it up and put on a happy face for them, you sniveling little -"_

_Just as she was about to bring her weapon down again, the kneeling Aries vanished in a glow. In the same spot where she'd just been, a new figure stood proudly, his hazel eyes hard as steel. __"Who do you think you are, putting your hands on Aries like that?" he demanded coldly._

_"Leo," Karen stammered, momentarily losing her nerve under the gaze of her strongest spirit. "What the hell do you think you're doing? How did you open your gate?" she roared as she found it once more._

_"You should know by now that I'm powerful enough to do it myself, without your consent," Leo responded icily. "I'm not just going to stand back and allow you to hurt my friends, understand? If you ever try to harm one of your spirits again, if you ever want to summon Aries for something she is clearly not comfortable doing, then you'll have to answer to me."_

_"And what are you going to do about it?" the lime-haired mage scowled, but her face turned vindictive as she called his bluff. "Are you going to get violent with me, Leo? That would be a very serious offense of our contract. You'd be banished from your world and left to die in this one, and then who'd be around to play knight in shining armor? Who'll switch places with Aries when I decide I want to summon her and keep her outside of her world until she's on her last legs, groveling to go back?"_

_To her surprise, Leo smirked at her scenario. "Don't you feel your strength being sapped by my being here? I opened my gate by myself, but it's through your magical energy that I'm sustaining myself right now. And let me tell you, you don't have the power to push Aries to the brink of death, and you certainly don't have anywhere close enough to do it to me."_

_Karen gritted her pearlescent teeth. "How dare you insult my abilities! I was going to become an S-Class Wizard!"_

_"I wanna see how that goes for you when I deplete most of your magic. Once I take enough to keep you from getting any jobs, I'll just use my own to keep myself here," Leo grinned smugly. "Confidence is one thing, but you're deluding yourself if you think any S-Class merit you may have is your own doing; your reputation's based on the backs of your Golden Keys. And you never did learn how to summon more than one of us at a time, did you? Since I'm still under contract to you, as long as I'm here in this world, you won't be able to call on Aries or Scorpio or any of the other spirits whose keys you own."_

_"You're so spiteful that you'd gamble with our livelihoods?!" Karen thundered. "You'd be killing yourself simply so I couldn't make any money!"_

_"You'd go bankrupt long before I'd die," Loke said, making his way to her condo door. "I'll return to the Celestial World when you agree to let Aries out of her contract. Being down one Golden Key won't hurt your chances of making S-Class nearly as much as not being able to work at all. When you're ready to do that, Karen, come find me by the cliff by the waterfall outside of town."  
><em>

**- 0 -**

_One month had passed since Leo gave his ultimatum to Karen. He had stopped utilizing Karen's magic two weeks into his stay, leaving her a modicum for basic functions. Because of his continued presence, however, she hadn't been able to replenish it to a comfortable degree. No clients had accepted her help on any jobs, and the mounting feelings of stress had worn on her appearance and mood, causing Sorcerer Weekly to expand their horizons to other beautiful young women to feature._

_"Please, Leo!" she cried over the waterfall. "You've proved your point! I'll be nicer to Aries! Just go back to your world and let me restore my powers!"  
><em>

_"That's not the deal," he said, looking ragged himself from all the time he'd spent away from his real home. "Give Aries's key to another wizard. Someone kind. Then I'll return."_

_Karen's face contorted into rage. "Damn you, Leo! I need to work!" she yelled. "You're overestimating your own strength! I can see the condition you're in, and you won't be able to keep this up for much longer! When you're forced to go back, you'll be recovering for a long time, and I'll be able to bring out Aries and make her endure all the misery you've caused me for the last month!"_

_Leo took an intimidating step towards the woman. "You're no closer to understanding than you were when this whole thing started! Celestial Spirits breathe and feel, just like you humans! We just want you to see that!" he bellowed, before composing himself slightly. "And no, actually, I'm managing just fine out here. I've been getting acclimated to your world, and every day has been easier than the one before. I'd reckon I could stay for a couple years if that's what it took."_

_"You're lying! There's no way your magic could hold out that long!" she refuted angrily. They held their heated gazes for a moment, before Karen broke out into a deranged smirk. "Fine, then. This is what you've driven me to, Leo. There was a request back at the guild hall that normally I wouldn't glance twice at. The Bureau of Magical Development is looking for subjects for a test study to increase a wizard's power, which sounds quite appealing right now." She let out a scornful laugh, turning around to begin walking away. "If everything goes right, I'll be given the strength to send you back to the Celestial World, whether you want to or not. I'll have complete control over you, and the rest of your spirit friends."_

_For the first time since the ordeal began, Leo felt the tide turn against him. There was little chance of the experiment paying off, but it would be a very unfavorable outcome if actually succeeded. "What would that boyfriend of yours think if he saw that look on your face?" he asked pointedly, getting her to stop. It was desperate, but this angle was his only recourse now. "That kid believes you're an angel, so it'd crush him to know you had such a dark side to you."_

_"Leave him out of this," Karen leered over her shoulder, before resuming her departure._

**- 0 -**

_Another two weeks had gone by since the last time Karen visited Leo at the waterfall. Now, he didn't feel any kind of strain whatsoever as he moved about in the human world. He'd been exaggerating when he first said he could last for years outside of his realm, but perhaps it was truer than he initially thought._

_However, he did feel somewhat disconcerted at the fact that Karen had been away for so long. She'd been coming around once a week, but this prolonged absence was beginning to make him nervous. How had that research trial gone? Or was it still ongoing? Would it really grant her that substantial boost in power, to override his will?_

_As he contemplated heading into Wisteria to seek answers, he noticed a gleaming bald head, attached to a rotund figure in a pink tank top, walking his way. "Master Bob?" he asked, respectfully attaching the title. He had expected to speak to him at some point, likely to try to mediate for both sides. He didn't anticipate to see the man in tears, however._

_"Leo, dear... Karen's dead," Bob uttered sorrowfully._

_The spirit's heart skipped a beat. "...What?"_

_Blue Pegasus's leader sighed, collecting himself. "After she came back from visiting you two weeks ago, she turned in a job application. Sadly, I was distracted by a handsome visitor to my guild, so I didn't pay much attention to the details. If I had, I would've known it was a sham; the branch of the Bureau of Magical Development that it told Karen to head to... It was destroyed several years ago by a Dark Guild. This was nothing but a trap, and poor Karen, she was lured in."_

_Leo sank to his knees as his eyes began to water. "This is my fault..." he stared blankly at the ground. "I pushed her too far... And now she's dead."_

_"It's not your fault," Bob tried to place a calming hand on his shoulder, but he was brusquely forced back._

_"It is! It's all because of me!" he punched the ground. "I didn't want this! I just wanted her to treat her spirits with dignity, with kindness and respect! She wasn't supposed to have died!"_

_After his volatile spurt, Bob was able to comfortingly pat Leo's back. "It's not you fault," he repeated. "Karen should've been more sympathetic towards you, and she should've known better than to take a job without adequate magic - just like I should've known better than to let her go on one. If I'd been more careful, this wouldn't have happened."_

_"No," Leo uttered solemnly, rising back to his feet. "This is a sin for me to bear - alone. There were other ways I could've tried to get her to understand us, but I chose something much more drastic than I needed to. No matter how you try to rationalize it, I didn't have to be so petty." He wiped his tears away, before looking up at the clear sky with a defeated expression. "Karen was killed because of me and my spite, and in the eyes of the Celestial World, that's equivalent to having done the deed myself. I'll never be able to go back now."_

_Bob stared at him as the realization dawned on him. "That means you'll..."_

_Leo nodded, shifting his gaze out to the cascade. "Yes. I don't know how long I'll be able to maintain myself in the human world, but eventually, I'll die here, too."_

**- 0 -**

"And now, after three years, it's my time," Loke finished up his story to a stricken Lucy, a tragic smile tugging at his lips.

"This can't be happening," she said in disbelief. "You didn't kill her... You shouldn't be punished for this!"

"There's nothing that can be done," he turned away from her, resting his hand on the cold memorial as he watched the waterfall crash into the lake below. "And even if there were, it's too late for me now."

"No!" Lucy cried, rushing at him and throwing her arms around him from behind. She let off a fierce shockwave of magical energy, enveloping the two of them in a golden aura. "I'm not gonna let you die! You'll be saved if you go back, right? Then I'll force open a gate for you!"

Loke tried to pry her hands off, but she was holding on too tight for his debilitated strength to manage. "Stop this! There _is_ no gate for me anymore! You're just wasting your magic for nothing! If you keep burning through it like that, you'll be in danger, too!"

"That doesn't matter!" the blonde shook her head defiantly as her glow progressively intensified. "I swore to my Celestial Spirits, my friends, that I wouldn't let anything bad ever happen to them! You don't deserve to die, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to keep you here with me!"

"Karen's dead because of me! This is all I can do to redeem myself!" Loke said, his voice wavering. Looking down at his hands around Lucy's, he noticed them begin to flicker, signifying his end was just moments away. Reality began to sink in. He thought he'd made peace with his fate, but now that it was finally in motion, his stomach began to churn, as well. "I'm sorry, Lucy," he whispered softly.

"Just stay with us!" she implored. "Fairy Tail won't be the same without you! We need you! _I_ need you! So just stay with us!"

As the spirit began to feel the last of his vitality slipping, everything went silent. When he realized he was still locked in Lucy's embrace, he opened his eyes to find the world in limbo. The waterfall was suspended in place, as well as the vapor rising from the bottom. Even the chirping crickets and the other nocturnal animal life had been muted. However, what truly drew their gaze the brilliant column of light, beaming down from the brightest star in the sky.

They watched in awe as a colossal form began to materialize within the light. Once the beam was rescinded, the majestic titan in cape and armor, arms folded across his chest, spoke out in a booming voice. "Leo, my old friend..."

"Impossible..." he responded, eyes wide with astonishment. "...Orion?"

Lucy immediately recognized the name from years of reading up on their realm's lore. "The Celestial Spirit King?"

Orion nodded once at the girl. "Indeed," he echoed throughout the timeless land.

"Are you going to save Loke?" she asked, daring to believe. "You'll take him back to the Celestial World?"

The king looked to the side of the pair. "I am here, because I want to express my great disappointment with the man I chose to lead the Zodiac Spirits."

Lucy lost it at that. Letting go of Loke, she stormed up to the edge of the cliff, glaring up at Orion. "This is wrong! Loke might've started a chain of events that lead to Karen's death, but he is not ultimately to blame for it!" Suddenly, a great magic seal erupted from beneath their feet, letting off a light almost as radiant as the king's constellation. All of her Celestial Spirits, from her sets of Gold and Silver Keys, stood with her to emphasize their shared conviction. From Virgo to Plue, Aquarius to Horologium, every one of Lucy's companions looked at their ruler with the same steely solidarity. "He deserves to live, and you need to know that that's how we all feel!"

To her surprise, so much so that her spirits weren't able to collectively tap into her magic to appear anymore, Orion chuckled and inclined his head. "My dear Lucy Heartfilia," he began amiably, "I cannot say that I disagree with your sentiments. I am aware of the circumstances of Leo's expulsion, and believe me when I say that I would like nothing more than allow him back into my kingdom."

"Then do it!" Lucy yelled. She never thought she'd ever meet the Celestial Spirit King, and she never would've thought she'd be ordering him as she was. She was being borderline disrespectful, but that didn't matter right now. All she cared about was him doing right by Loke.

Even though it was obscured by his long mustache, Lucy and Loke could both tell Orion was giving a small smile. "Do you see, Leo?" he asked, turning to him instead. "Do you see how passionately she fights for you? How she demands your survival?"

"Yeah," he nodded, unable to face the blonde girl. "It's nice, Lucy. It really is. But I already told you, this is the consequence for what I've done, and... I'm okay with that."

"No," she cried softly, taking his hand. "Don't give up. Please."

"Leo," Orion intoned, reverberating with crowned authority. "Look at Lucy Heartfilia, and tell her you don't want to live."

The two stiffened at the command. Lucy couldn't formulate any words, while Leo failed to turn to her and comply.

"As I thought," the king nodded, sounding almost pleased. "It has been three years now since the unfortunate death of Karen Lilica. During that time, you have lived in the land of humans, distracting yourself from the thought with the company of women, while also employing yourself as a noble wizard to help those in need as a form of penitence. This paradoxical existence has lead me to the conclusion that, even as you tell yourself that you have accepted what was to become of you, even as you tell yourself that forgiveness is beyond you, you still yearn for atonement.

"So I, Orion, King of the Celestial World, hereby challenge you."

Loke, shocked by what was being asked of him, began to levitate off the cliff. Lucy, despite having insisted with herself not to let him go, released her hold on his hand, allowing him to slowly ascend towards eye level with Orion. As he floated up, his outfit of designer human clothes disappeared in a glow, leaving him in a sharp black suit. His hair also grew longer and spikier, the shading adding a subtle touch of gold. "What're you saying?" he asked the king.

Instead of answering, Orion raised his enormous hand. From each of his fingertips, sizzling beams of light shot out at Loke, who nimbly dodged the array. He felt like his old self again, completely recharged, as if he hadn't been stuck outside in the human world for three years. Still, although he didn't want to be hit by one of the rays, he didn't think he could return fire against the supreme being.

Lucy thought she knew what this was. She figured out the king's ploy, and prayed Loke would find it within himself to pass his test.

"I want you to show me the heart of the lion you possess!" Orion bellowed. "I have given you back the strength you'd lost, just as I can create for you a new gate to the Celestial World! So show me!"

"But what about my punishment?" Loke twirled by more of the sweeping lasers. "I killed Karen!"

The giant stopped his attack, allowing a fragile calm to settle over the scene. "Between worlds, there is a place you are not supposed to stay," he began, causing chills down their spines. "As the ruler of our kingdom, I have decided that you have suffered appropriately for your hand in the passing of your former master. I've long since missed your presence at my court, and the resolve Lucy Heartfilia has displayed on your behalf has convinced me to pardon you, and return your star to the heavens. All you have to do is show me your true desire. Is it to repent, by having your life wholly extinguished? Or is it to remain by the side of that girl, to protect her and the rest of your earthbound friends?"

Loke trembled at the inquisition. It was an obvious choice, wasn't it? Life or death. But even still, he couldn't help but feel weighed down by that haunting anguish of his greatest failure. He'd been contracted to Karen, and she'd died, partly because of him. Had he really been through enough to make up for that?

He looked back down at the cliff, and saw Lucy beaming at him. The one thing he'd been afraid to lose since coming to terms with his own mortality, was that smile she was giving him. And he was being given the opportunity to keep that pure Celestial Wizard's smile.

It was an obvious choice.

"I want to live!" Loke, Leo the Lion, roared. He lifted his clenched fist, and fired off a burst of Regulus energy at Orion.

The king blocked the blast with his forearm, leaving a smoldering mark on his pristine gauntlet. He then lowered it with a laugh, reverberating through even the ground under Lucy's feet. "Then I concede," he grinned, before pointing at the girl. "As the condition for your reentry to my kingdom, I will sentence you to the servitude of Lucy Heartfilia. You will be at her beck and call at her leisure, and her every wish will be your command. This second lease on your life has been written by her, so you will do whatever necessary to keep her from harm. Do you agree to the terms of this contract?"

"I agree," Loke nodded with a smile. He turned back to Lucy as he was gently placed back down on the cliff, transforming into the young man she'd seen her first day at Fairy Tail. He held out his hand to her, his Golden Key presented in his palm. She picked it up, causing it to shine as brightly as her wonderful expression of joy. "Thank you, Lucy," he said earnestly. "I promise, I'll always be there for you."

With that, he vanished in a glow. The blonde knew she didn't have to worry about him anymore, because she knew where he'd gone. "Thanks, Loke," she said, pressing the key to her heart. She then looked back up to Orion, feeling slightly remorseful at how she'd spoken to him earlier. "And thank you, Celestial Spirit King," she bowed her head.

"Thank you, as well," he returned the gesture. "Had it not been for your bold determination, we would both have lost a dear friend. And speaking of which..." Orion gazed out over the forest, feeling the sizable group fast approaching. "Perhaps someday, we will meet again."

The king disappeared in another blinding light, allowing the waterfall and the rest of their surroundings to resume activity as normal. Not a minute after, a pair of Magic Vehicles plowed through the trees, with Mirajane and Erza operating from the open front seats.

"Lucy!" Cana yelled out as the passengers in the wagons hopped out, and the drivers unstrapping their SE Plugs. Mira's siblings exited from her smaller cart, while the brunette, Gray and Happy appeared from Erza's, a debilitated Natsu stumbling out a second later. "What's going on? Where's Loke?"

"You guys followed me out here?" she asked, feeling guilty all over again. She'd left in such a hurry, prompting her friends to round each other up and give chase in those vehicles, all the way out to Wisteria. She supposed she'd do the same thing, if one of them had been in Lucy's place. She showed them the newest key, glinting in the moonlight, and smile reassuringly. "Everything's alright, and I promise I'll explain everything. Right now, I think we should just get home, too."

Her guildmates all looked at one another, confused by what she meant by 'too'. Still, she was probably right. It was the middle of the night, they were all in their pajamas, and they had a lengthy trip back to Magnolia. If Lucy gave her word that nobody was in danger, and to tell all, they decided they could wait until morning to hear her out.

**- 0 -**

"So you're the strongest Golden Key Spirit of them all?!" Natsu demanded of Loke the next day. "Man, if I'd known that, you and I would've gone a few rounds!"

"A lion is the ultimate cat!" Happy claimed, perched on the auburn-haired boy's head with an admiring, awestruck smile. "Someday I'm gonna grow up and be just like you, ladies' man and everything!"

"Yeah, I really doubt that," Lucy cut in dryly. Over breakfast at the guild hall's restoration grounds, she'd gone through all the details of Loke's real identity. Everybody listened to the story intently, especially after Leo himself appeared from the Celestial World to back her up.

He was in higher spirits than the others could remember him being in for months, even as he went through dealing with every question raised to him. "I hope you guys don't miss me around here too much," he said with a grin. "I'm glad I can say that and not be talking about dying. I just mean that I'm gonna be spending _a lot_ of time with Lucy from now on."

He wrapped his arm around his new master's shoulders, pulling her close to him and eliciting a slight blush with his tone. While the rest of the table snickered, Erza, despite her small smile, shook her head. "Loke, I do hope you'll inform all of your girlfriends about your exclusivity now. If you're going to break their hearts, the least you can do is to be honest and chivalrous about it."

"Whoa, slow down. I know I'm contracted here, but no one's said anything about exclusivity," he gave a cavalier smirk. "Of course, Lucy, if you wanted to make that clear in front of everyone, I couldn't really say no, could I?"

Lucy felt her face redden even more as all eyes looked at her expectantly. "Hey, so my cousin's gonna be visiting me this weekend," she said, thankful to have another topic to divert their attention. "It's been a long time since I've seen her, so I hope she doesn't think I've gone crazy from being around all of you too much."

"Crazy?! We're not crazy!" Natsu cried defensively, sparks flitting from his mouth.

"Not all of us, anyway," the ice mage jabbed as he absently pulled off his shirt (a shriek of excitement was heard faintly in the distance before it was contained).

"Gray, your clothes," Cana reminded him, swirling her cup of juice after having poured the clear contents of a flask.

"Wait, so your cousin didn't think you were crazy _before_?" Happy grinned innocently. "Well, she's definitely in for a surprise now."

"Yes," Erza nodded thoughtfully. "It's not every day you get to meet a talking blue cat that can fly."

Lisanna sighed. "Yeah, we're pretty crazy," she conceded with a smile.

"Can't wait to meet her," Loke said, winking at Lucy as the others debated their varying degrees of insanity. "Your family should know what I'm crazy about - or rather, _who_."

The Celestial Wizard rolled her eyes at her spirit's flirting. Now that there wasn't anything big going on, these were the days where Fairy Tail could have its fun. Of course, for her that meant being exasperated by her guildmates' antics. And after what she'd been through with her father recently, she couldn't help but swell with excitement over having someone else in her family to share this with.

* * *

><p><em>And so that's the Loke arc. I took a pretty big liberty here in giving the Celestial Spirit King a name, mostly because I didn't want to have to write that title every single time. I thought "Orion" fit him well, what did you think?<em>

_That fluffy ending here isn't for anything you'll see in the coming chapter; it was to build up the next Extra in Sidestories, so be sure to read it! If you're familiar with a certain filler arc in the anime, you should know who I'm referring to! It's a really fun chapter that I've been wanting to put out for awhile, so again, check it out once you're done here!_

_See that box at the bottom there, where you can type stuff? It's for reviews, and it'd be awesome if you wrote me one!_


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